Towamencin Township Police have announced the arrest of 33-year-old Amanda Topham, of North Wales, in connection with a series of incidents involving forged checks and stolen jewelry.
Police were dispatched to the 1900 block of Rampart Lane on Feb. 23 for a report of a residential burglary. Upon arrival, police met with the victims, who stated that when they had returned home from work the previous day, they noticed that two iPads were missing. Later that day, the victims received an alert from their financial institution stating that two checks—one in the amount of $1,500, and the other in the amount of $500—had been cashed against their account. The victim’s then looked at their checkbook, and noticed that five checks were missing.
Both checks that were cashed were made out to Amanda Topham, according to the criminal complaint.
Later that day, police received another call from a local bank stating that the suspect had attempted to cash another check in the amount of $400, and gave a description that matched Topham and her vehicle, according to the report. One of the victims also informed police that Topham was her brother’s former girlfriend, and she had visited the home multiple times per week over a five year period, the report states.
Then, on March 1, the victims again contacted police to state that they had noticed that more items were missing from their home, including eight pieces of jewelry valued at $1,500. Investigators then searched a database of pawn shops, where they learned that Topham had allegedly conducted a transaction at a pawn shop in Cheltenham on Feb. 22 in which she received $500 for jewelry.
Police visited the pawn shop and were able to recover the stolen jewelry. They also viewed surveillance footage, which showed both Topham and her vehicle during the transaction, according to the complaint.
As a result of the investigation, Topham has been charged with six felony counts of forgery, two felony counts of attempted forgery, two felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, one felony count of theft by deception, one felony count of attempted theft by deception, and one felony count of dealing in illegal proceeds, in addition to 13 misdemeanor counts of receiving stolen property and two misdemeanor counts of attempted theft.
Topham was arraigned on April 5 by Magisterial District judge Ed Levine, who set bail at $40,000 unsecured. Her next scheduled court appearance in a preliminary hearing on May 5 at 9:30 a.m. in front of Judge Levine.
Topham plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of writing bad checks in Oct. 2007, and was also charged with misdemeanor counts of retail theft and receiving stolen property on March 18, 2019, in Whitpain Township. She remains out on $5,000 unsecured bail in that case.
(Editor's note: All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Should the defendant choose to issue a public statement, or is later found not guilty or has the charges dropped, we will update this article accordingly.)
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