A Burns Harbor resident was booked into the Porter County Jail early this morning on a charge of check fraud, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said.

According to police, Sarah Jean Geressy, 24, of 313 Navajo Trail, was arrested on that charge at 12:45 a.m. by the PCSP.

In his probable cause affidavit, Det. Robert Shrader of the Portage Police Department stated that on Sept. 19 he met with a security officer at Wal-Mart who had been alerted that Geressy and two other women had tried to cash fraudulent checks. “On the checks, the spelling of the business is wrong, the address to the business is the address to the Wal-Mart headquarters, the city and state are incorrect, and the sequence numbers are wrong,” Shrader stated.

Geressy subsequently advised that she had received the check from a man nicknamed “LaLa,” to whom she’d been introduced by an acquaintance in Duneland, Shrader stated.

That acquaintance “informed her that ‘LaLa’ prints fraudulent payroll checks on his computer and has people submit the fraudulent checks for payment,” Shrader stated. “In return for submitting the check, the person receives a portion of the cash and ‘LaLa’ keeps the balance. Geressy told (her acquaintance) she was interested in participating.”

Geressy later recruited a second woman and that woman recruited a third, Shrader stated. On Sept. 19 “LaLa” met the three in the Wal-Mart parking lot and gave them each a check to cash.

“Geressy admitted that she knew the check was fraudulent,” Shrader stated. “Geressy was given check number 16230825 in the amount of $982.14 and it was payable to her from ITW Filteratoin. She signed the back of the check and was told by ‘LaLa’ that she would be allowed to keep $200 if she successfully cashed the check.”

Check fraud is a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years.

Posted 1/29/2010