Florence police foil $10,000 check scam

FLORENCE — Seven people have been arrested in connection with a counterfeit check scam that resulted in more than $10,000 in losses for several Pee Dee businesses.

Florence police investigators said the scam began in October and included hundreds of counterfeit checks drawn on legitimate business accounts.

The suspects used computers to generate fake checks with real business names and bank accounts, Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.

The bogus checks appeared very real, so the average person wouldn’t be able to determine that they were fake, Raines said.

Police said the ringleaders would create the checks and make them payable to other suspects who were willing to go to Florence businesses and cash them in exchange for a cut of the profit.

It can take several weeks or months for a check to go through the banking system, so the suspects were able to run the scam for many months, Raines said.

Once it was clear to a merchant that someone had been cashing fraudulent checks through their businesses, the account numbers and business names were red-flagged.

Investigators said the scam began to crumble when the scammers visited the merchants one too many times with the bogus checks, Raines said. Police eventually traced the operation to a home in Quinby where they found several identification cards, blank checks, check-making software, Social Security cards and signature stamps.

Arrested in connection with the case were Rodney Darrell Graham, 29, of 3673 Wilkes Road in Olanta; Ronald Patrick Price, 35; Keyone Shanard Green, 26, of 109 Ross St. in Darlington; Cory Jamal Brockington, 28, of 603 Simmons St. in Florence; Judean White, 42, of 104 Countryside Lane in Florence; Trevor Brandon Doby, 26, of 1102 Kershaw St. in Florence; and James Rasheed Evans, 30, of 107 Wildwood Drive in Florence.

Green, Brockington and White are each charged with two counts of forgery-value less than $5,000, Florence County Detention Center booking reports show.

Green is also charged with criminal conspiracy, second-degree computer crime act violation and financial identity fraud.

Brockington also faces a criminal conspiracy charge.

Price, Evans and Graham are each charged with forgery-value less than $5,000, booking reports show.

Doby is charged with two counts of forgery-less than $1,000, federally chartered or insured financial institution crime and forgery (no dollar amount involved).

Police are still searching for Trenton Smith, 20, of Darlington, Latoria Hickson, 22, of Florence and Shonda Shontel Jackson, 21, of Florence., Raines said.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the police department at (843) 676-8800 and Crime Stoppers of the Pee Dee at (888) CRIME SC (274-6372). Callers need not reveal their identities.