THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994 TAG: 9406270324
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: NORFOLK
DATELINE: 940625 LENGTH: Short
Cooksey, 39, bought homes under aliases, rented the properties and never made payments on the mortgages, which were insured by federal agencies. The losses to the government on nine houses exceeded $200,000, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney James A. Metcalfe.
The scheme lasted from June 1989 until May 1990.
Cooksey's sentence in federal court will run consecutive to a prison term he's already serving on state charges in Virginia Beach.
In 1992, he was sentenced to 15 years for using his professional position to enter houses throughout the city so he could steal bank checks and credit cards.
Police believed Cooksey broke into 18 houses between from December 1988 to May 1991. He opened lockboxes and took out the house keys routinely placed there for real estate agents wishing to show the property.
If someone was in the home, Cooksey would fake being interested in selling the house. If not, he rummaged through the belongings.
According to police, the break-ins financed expensive clothes and restaurant meals.
{KEYWORDS} FRAUD ROBBERY
by CNB