LAKE CITY, Fla. – A woman was arrested Saturday for grand theft after police received a complaint of check fraud from a Tampa Bay business with contract employees in Lake City, officials said.
According to a complaint, the Modern Business Association, who provides contract accounting and human resource workers to businesses, sent a payroll check on Aug. 26 to Brandiesha Williams, 23, who was contracted with the Happy House Day Care. Williams deposited the check online, then cashed the same check in person at a check-cashing business.
Recommended Videos
The duplicate processing was detected the following day when the bank processed the check. When contacted by the bank, Williams to the manager that she placed the funds on a card, but lost it. She agreed to pay the money back, but officials said she never returned the money or future phone calls from the bank.
In a statement provided by Williams, she admitted to receiving the funds twice.
Williams said that when she processed the check online she received an error, so she went to a check-cashing business to cash it manually. When she returned home, she noticed that she had received the money twice.
Williams said that she used the extra money to pay off her bills, and thought she could return it later. Officials said she made no efforts to do so in over a month.
Williams said that the duplicate funds was a mistake caused by her bank’s website, not fraud.
In Florida, actively spending duplicate funds, instead of returning them or alerting the bank to the error, is considered theft.
Because the amount of the check was over $500, Williams was arrested and charged with grand theft and passing worthless checks. She was booked into the Columbia County Jail with a $10,000 bond.