DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708280526

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   50 lines

CHESAPEAKE POLICE SEEK HELP IN THEFT OF CHECKS

Police are looking for a man who has cashed $10,000 in stolen checks here in the past four months, said Chesapeake police Det. W.H. Barber Jr.

The thief has stolen 200 to 250 corporate checks from The Harbor Club in Norfolk, Barber said. Using Virginia driver's licenses with false names and addresses, the thief set up accounts with Jefferson National and BB&T banks. He used the names Paul Williams or Paul Austin of Chesapeake.

The thief then cashed the checks before they had a chance to clear the banks on which they had been drawn, Barber said.

Chesapeake police have alerted the Virginia Bank Security Association about the fraud, Barber said.

NationsBank - which issued the checks - discovered the fraud in April, said Jim Therrien, NationsBank fraud investigator for southeastern Virginia. The thief has cashed four checks since then, including two this month. Therrien investigates between 50 to 75 similar fraud cases a year.

Therrien cautions businesses to destroy unused corporate checks.

``When they get through with them, businesses usually just put them in a closet or a store room, where they can be stolen,'' Therrien said.

Forged checks are nothing new. But computers are helping crooks to become more sophisticated, Barber said. Criminals not only steal corporate checks, but scan them into computers and reprint them with laser printers.

Mark Moody, 25, of Philadelphia, Pa., was convicted in Chesapeake on Aug. 18 of forgery, passing false checks and obtaining money under false pretenses. Using a stolen U.S. Navy identification card, Moody wrote forged corporate checks that he printed himself on a computer. He was ordered to pay $9,700 in restitution, Barber said.

In another case, Chesapeake police are looking for the person responsible for 17 residential burglaries in Deep Creek and nine in Western Branch since the beginning of the year, said police spokesman Dave Hughes.

The burglar targets elderly residents working in their yards, Hughes said. The unarmed burglar sneaks into the resident's house through an open garage door or other entrance while the resident is gardening or mowing the grass, then steals the resident's purse or wallet, Hughes said. On several occasions, residents have confronted the thief, who flees after making an excuse. The burglar has never made any physical threats. MEMO: Anyone with any information on these cases should call

Chesapeake's Crime Line at 487-1234. ILLUSTRATION: Police say this man, using the names Paul Austin or

Paul Williams, is cashing stolen corporate checks from The Harbor

Club in Norfolk.

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