A 53-year-old Los Angeles woman was sentenced today to time served and three years of supervised release for her part in a phony check scheme that defrauded financial institutions throughout the Southland.
Connie Skipper and a co-defendant cashed forged checks using stolen identification at more than a dozen banks in West Hollywood, Calabasas, Aliso Viejo and elsewhere from 2007 through 2009.
Skipper previously served about three years in state prison for having committed the same acts asserted in the federal case, according to court papers.
By presenting bank tellers with stolen driver’s licenses and other forms of illegally obtained identification, the pair attempted to cash about $48,000 in phony checks, causing losses of more than $36,000. The checks were burglarized from postal collection boxes and victims’ homes and vehicles.
In some instances, once the checks were stolen, the defendants “washed” or erased the original amount and payee, and then substituted a different amount and a different payee, according to court papers.
The defendants also created forged checks using account information obtained from stolen checks, then presented the counterfeits for payment at various banks.
Skipper and Thomas Salyers, 55, each pleaded guilty in October to a federal conspiracy charge. Salyers is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 2.
Hopefully they have to reimburse the banks for the $48,000 they stole.