Georgia pair, Erie man face more charges in stolen business check-cashing spree in county
Three men caught attempting to cash a stolen and altered business check at an Andover Bank branch in Millcreek Township on March 24 cashed two similar checks at other Andover Bank branches in Erie County before their apprehensions, the Pennsylvania State Police charge in new criminal complaints filed in the ongoing fraud probe.
The three suspects — Georgia residents Jeremy Ivory, 35, and Jemal Strozier, 30, and Erie resident Jamie Thomas, 28 — are now accused of stealing more than $22,000 from two Edinboro-area businesses by stealing their checks, altering them and then cashing them at various banks in the Erie region. The thefts occurred March 23 and 24, according to details outlined in two sets of criminal complaints the Pennsylvania State Police filed against the three suspects.
The latest complaints against Ivory, Strozier and Thomas were filed Wednesday in the office of McKean District Judge Denise Stuck-Lewis. The three had not been arraigned on the charges as of Friday morning.
State police accuse the trio in the complaints of cashing two fraudulent checks stolen from an Edinboro-area trucking company, with each check made out for $3,500 and made payable to Thomas. One of the checks was cashed shortly before 5 p.m. March 23 at an Andover Bank branch on West Plum Street in Edinboro. The other check was cashed shortly before noon March 24 at an Andover Bank branch on East State Street in Albion, according to information in the complaints.
The Millcreek Township Police Department apprehended Ivory, Strozier and Thomas shortly after 4:30 p.m. March 24 when investigators said they tried to cash another check stolen from the trucking company, which was also altered and made payable to Thomas for $3,500, at an Andover Bank branch on Zimmerly Road in Millcreek.
Millcreek police said Thomas told them that Ivory and Strozier had picked him up about a week earlier and they went to several banks in Pennsylvania and Ohio to attempt to cash fraudulent checks.
More: Authorities probe bigger scam after Georgia pair, Erie man nabbed in check cashing try
Other cases
Ivory, Strozier and Thomas were charged with offenses including felony forgery and receiving stolen property in the Millcreek case March 25.
On March 31, state police charged the three with offenses including felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property after accusing them of stealing and altering five checks belonging to a machine shop in Edinboro and cashing four of them March 23.
The checks in those cases were each made out to Thomas for $3,865.87 and were cashed at Northwest Bank branches in Fairview Township, Erie, Summit Township and Washington Township, according to information in the criminal complaints.
Investigators accused the trio of attempting to cash the fifth bank stolen from the machine shop at a Northwest branch in Union City, which was made out to Thomas for $4,565.87, but bank employees would not cash it after they contacted the business owner and learned that the check was fraudulent, according to the complaints.
More: Georgia pair, Erie man charged with washing, cashing more stolen checks around Erie County
The scam the Georgia men are accused of perpetrating is similar to a check fraud scheme that circulated in parts of Erie County in 2018. Police in those cases accused two Georgia residents, Victor Lemmons and Jasmine Carter, of employing local homeless people to cash checks that were stolen from area businesses and cashed at several banks around the county.
More: Check-cashing scam that relied on homeless in Erie, elsewhere nets 4-year federal sentence
Lemmons and Carter were initially charged by state and local police. They were later indicted federally on counts of conspiracy and bank fraud. Lemmons was sentenced in 2020 to three years and 10 months to four years and nine months in prison. Carter was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Georgia pair, Erie man accused of cashing more altered checks in scam
