An Illinois man pleaded guilty to forging checks in April 2018 in Jefferson City.
During a hearing before Cole County Judge Dan Green, Robert Anthony, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a forging instrument and was placed on five years supervised probation.
An officer served a search warrant at a dorm room on the Lincoln University campus, according to a Jefferson City Police Department probable cause statement. The warrant was for computer equipment and accessories used to forge checks.
Anthony let the officer inside the room, and the officer saw Anthony grab a stack of paper from the back of the room, which turned out to be blank business check paper. Anthony kept his back to the officer as he did this, so the officer said Anthony was concealing evidence. He was then placed in handcuffs and under arrest.
A further search of the dorm room turned up a printer and a laptop computer. The monitor on the laptop showed a fraudulent check that was being made. It included an account number, business name and bank information.
Anthony was taken to the police department for an interview, where he denied he was doing anything wrong and said he wasn’t the one creating the checks.
An officer showed Anthony several photographs from an ATM. Anthony said he was given permission to use another person’s bank card. He used a bank card of another person to deposit three fraudulent checks totaling more than $1,440.
Anthony was not able to tell authorities whose bank card he was using. As a result of the deposit, a withdrawal by another person took place for $600.