Crime & Public Safety.
A man from Key West, Florida has been accused of trying to cash a fraudulent check at Univest in Franconia Township for almost $2,000, drafted on a Pennsylvania tree management company’s checking account.
He was then charged the next day by Limerick Township Police for pulling the same alleged scam.
John Fiess, of the 5500 block of College Road, and who also has an address in Westampton, NJ, was charged Aug. 9 by Franconia Township Police with felony counts of conspiracy to use a counterfeit access device, forgery, and using a fraudulent or counterfeit access device, and misdemeanor charges of theft by deception and secure execution of documents by deception, per charging documents.
Fiess has been at Montgomery County jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail since Aug. 9, per court documents.
On Aug. 7, at 2:20 p.m., Franconia Police responded to Univest Bank and Trust, 500 Harleysville Pike, Franconia Township, for a report of a possible fraudulent check, police said. While en route, police were given the description of the suspect as a white male, wearing an orange shirt, tan shorts, and black baseball cap, police said.
Police said the suspect may have left the area in a vehicle, and police did not find anyone matching the description. The bank manager told police that one of the tellers alerted her to a possible fraudulent check issued to “John Fiess” in the amount of $1,908.11, police said.
A call made to the checking account holder on the account verified the check number was in their possession and never issued, and that names and amounts are always written, never typed, on the checks, per the complaint.
While the signature was almost identical to the account holder’s, police said the signature was not signed by the account holder.
Fiess was told by the bank manager that the transaction cannot be completed, and he left the bank casually, walked across the road, entered a car, and left, police said.
Bank management provided a copy of Fiess’s Florida ID that he produced to cash the check, per the affidavit.
According to court documents, Fiess was arrested and arraigned Aug. 9 by Limerick Township Police and charged with felony counts of criminal attempted forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, criminal attempted use of an counterfeit access device, conspiracy to use a counterfeit access device, criminal attempted theft by deception, and conspiracy to commit theft by deception, per court documents. He also faces misdemeanor counts of criminal attempt – secure execution documents by deception, and conspiracy to secure execution documents by deception for the Aug. 8 incident, per court records.
A preliminary hearing on the Franconia case is scheduled for Aug. 21 at 11:30 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Adam T. Katzman.
A preliminary hearing in the Limerick arrest is scheduled for Sept. 16 at 11:30 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Richard H. Welsh.
