Fraud charges filed in check theft scheme 

A 25-year-old Rockland Key man is facing a litany of fraud and grand theft charges stemming from a Sheriff’s Office investigation into a litany of checks stolen from Lower Keys mailboxes and forged.

Keenan Michael James was already in jail Monday due to his November 2019 arrest on aggravated battery charges following a stabbing in Key West.

James was charged Monday with 17 felony fraud counts regarding the stolen checks.

The Sheriff’s Office began receiving reports of stolen checks from residential mailboxes late last year in the Lower Keys, particularly Sugarloaf Key and Big Coppitt Key as well as Key West.

Another suspect in the case was arrested in January: Matthew Elswick, 28, of Key West, on grand theft and fraud charges.

All the thefts were similar in that victims left signed checks in their residential mailboxes in order to pay any manner of bills. The checks were stolen and altered. The signatures were removed and forged and the dollar amounts were all changed and increased.

The checks were then deposited into back accounts via local bank ATMs. Detectives used bank security video and worked with bank officials to find suspicious checks which in turn led them to the suspects. Detectives also worked with the victims to gather information pertinent to the case.

Additional charges and more arrests could be pending.

Detectives estimate that tens of thousands of dollars were stolen by the suspects.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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