Authorities had arrested a man from Florida after he bought a Porsche worth 140,000 by using a fake banker's check that was printed from his home computer. He was charged with theft.
Fake money
The 42-year-old man from Wewahitchka, Florida named Casey William Kelley, used a fake banknote at a Porsche dealership located in Destin, Okaloosa County on July 27. Kelley was sold the brand new Porsche 911 before the dealership realized that the banknote was fake.
Kelley posed beside the sports car before it was sold to him. The image was given to the authorities and the Porsche was reported stolen by the dealership. They filed the case at the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office after they figured out that the check that Kelley wrote for $139,203.05 was not real.
According to authorities, Kelley pushed his luck and did not stop at just purchasing a Porsche. A day after he bought the sports car, Kelley used another fake banknote to purchase three Rolex watches, as reported by The DailyMail.
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On July 28, Kelley wrote a check for $61,521 and he tried to use it at a jeweler in Miramar Beach. However, the jeweler did not give him the watches immediately and waited for the check to cash.
Law & Crime was able to obtain Kelley's arrest report, the jeweler found out that the check was fake on July 29 and the bank stated that it had received numerous fraudulent notes from Kelley.
On July 30, the jeweler reported the fake check to the Walton County Sheriff's Office. During that time, Kelley was already arrested for stealing the Porsche, he was taken into custody in the afternoon of July 29.
According to investigators, Kelley admitted that he did not get the banknotes from the bank, but instead printed them from his home computer. The arrest report also states that Kelley did not think that it was a big deal since it was his account number on the check that he gave and thought it would be fine.
Kelley was booked into the Walton County Jail and was charged for grand theft of a motor vehicle. He was also charged for fraud, uttering forged checks, bills, notes or drafts. On July 30, he appeared on the court and is held on a $10,000 bond. He will appear on the court again on September 22.
How to spot fake checks
It is important to know how to spot a fake check, the first thing that you need to observe is the edges. Legit checks have at least one rough edge, so if all of the edges are smooth, it is possible that the check was printed from a home computer, according to AARP.
Look at the bank logo on the check. A fake one usually has no bank logo or the logo itself is faded, like it was copied from software or an online picture. Read the bank address, if there is no street address indicated and it only shows a P.O box or the ZIP code is wrong, then the check is fake.
Remember to check the number too. If there is no check number indicted at the upper right-hand corner of the check, or the number does not match the check number in the MICR line, then it is counterfeit.
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