Seven arrested in counterfeit and forged check investigations in Chattanooga region

Seven people were arrested Thursday in separate cases of forged and counterfeit checks across the Chattanooga region.

A group of six was taken into custody after trying to cash counterfeit checks at a Scottsboro, Ala., bank Thursday, according to a news release.

Willie Trice, 27; Colundria Seats, 41; Jamil Weaver, 18; and Shawnta Evans, 29, all from Atlanta, Ga., were charged with possession of a forgery device. Trice also was charged with fleeing to elude arrest.

Additionally, Tracy Burrel, 30, and Cortez Petty, 27, both from Huntsville, Ala., were charged with possession of a forged instrument.

Scottsboro police officers were called to the bank after two people were trying to cash counterfeit checks, the news release states. Officers then learned four others were in a vehicle parked outside waiting on the two inside the bank. Those officers did not locate the vehicle but did get a vehicle description.

Another officer spotted a vehicle matching the description traveling west on John T. Reid Parkway. He stopped the vehicle, and one suspect fled on foot before being taken into custody.

In the suspects' vehicle, officers found a laptop, a printer and blank checks. According to investigators, the four suspects from Atlanta allegedly arrived in Scottsboro on Thursday and then went to Huntsville where they recruited two locals to cash the fraudulent checks.

On the same day in Chattanooga, a Hixson man was arrested after allegedly trying to forge a check and make two additional charges using the victim's information in early March.

John Richard Paynter, 21, was charged with three counts of theft of identity and three counts of theft of property, according to court records.

On March 2, a Hixson man put two checks in his mailbox. One, according to court documents, was for Chase Bank in the amount of $605.71 and another was a $25 contribution to the Veteran's Affairs hospital in Johnson City, Tenn.

But the checks never made it to their destinations. Instead, the man received a strange, opened but empty envelope with a note that read, "Return to sender." He took it to the post office, where he was told the letter had never been processed because it had no postal service markings on it.

The man also received a strange call from someone he said was pretending to be from the Veteran's Affairs hospital. Not long after that, the man was made aware of three charges listed on his bank statement. Two were for $25 and $50 to "USBANCORP Direct" and another was for $664.16 to Walmart.

When the man contacted his bank, he was given the name "John Paynter" as the recipient of the U.S. Bancorp transaction.

Investigators believe Paynter allegedly stole the checks from the victim's mailbox and altered the $605.71 check. A copy of the check shown to detectives showed it, "... had been altered or 'washed' and in the payee line of the check, Chase had been changed to John Richard Paynter," court documents state. The check amount was unaltered.

Detectives said there was probable cause to believe Paynter used the victim's identity to make the two additional transactions with U.S. Bancorp.

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