Monitor Editor
STARKE— A 31-year-old Starke woman was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading to an attempt to cash checks from her dead grandparents’ checking account.
Priscilla Lynn Curtis pleaded no contest to the Aug. 25 offenses of uttering counterfeit checks and to fraud.
According to an arrest report, VyStar Credit Union employees called police after Curtis and a man attempted the transaction from the credit union’s drive through.
Arresting officer Jeffery A. Smith wrote in the report that he contacted the suspects while they were still in the drive through.
He added that the two checks, one for $800 and a second for $500 had the deceased grandmother’s signature on them.
There were a total of four people in the car. Two told Smith they saw Curtis sign the checks and hand them to the driver, who forwarded the checks to the teller.
Smith wrote that he found two blank checks from the dead couple’s account in the center console of the car. Bank video showed Curtis taking what appeared to be two checks from her wallet and place them in the console while Smith was escorting the driver to Smith’s patrol vehicle.
Smith wrote that he was later informed by VyStar that four additional checks were deposited with the credit union, drawn from the grandparents’ CNB Bank account. The four drafts totaled $1,750. A fifth check, from the grandmother’s first husband, who was also deceased, was cashed for $800.
Smith wrote that he contacted one of the grandmother’s sons, who said his grandmother was a hoarder and never threw anything away.
He added that Curtis likely obtained the checks from the grandparent’s former residence, which Curtis resided in at one point.
Smith also interviewed two people who said they were tricked into helping Curtis cash other fraudulent checks.
One woman said Curtis asked her for help in obtaining sanitary supplies for rehab.
“Priscilla asked (the woman) how to spell her name so her grandmother could write out the check to (the woman),” Smith wrote.
The woman added that she picked up Curtis from Curtis’s home and drove to the VyStar ATM near the Bradford County Fairgrounds, then deposited a check made out to herself into the machine and withdrew cash which she gave to Curtis. She then drove Curtis to a Dollar General across the street where Curtis made her purchases.
Smith said he interviewed a man who was contacted by Curtis through Facebook Messenger, asking him if he wanted to make $100 by cashing checks.
“(The man) advised he was told by Priscilla that the checks were written by her grandmother and she could not cash them due to losing her identification,” Smith wrote. “(The man) agreed to cashing the checks due to believing it was an honest transaction.”
The man said the checks he cashed for Curtis were later returned and VyStar locked his account.
“(The man) stated he took out a loan to pay his debt to VyStar due to the checks being returned.”
