McWhorters face phony check charges

A couple who printed checks on a home computer and then passed them throughout the county now face a mountain of criminal charges.

The couple, James McWhorter, 27, and Beatrice McWhorter, 25, are both charged with multiple counts of forgery and theft, in warrants and indictments obtained by city investigators. They are also facing additional charges being lodged at the time by sheriff?s investigators for crimes outside McMinnville city limits as well as being the target of similar charges in other Middle Tennessee counties.

The two were charged after they victimized two separate places of business here, passing computer-generated checks at various local stores on numerous occasions. Their chief victim was Stewart Pharmacy, while Superama also took two checks. The McWhorters obtained thousands of dollars from the phony checks.

It was their repeated visits to businesses they had already victimized which led to their downfall when it was discovered the checks they were passing were not only fake, but were sometimes from non-existent businesses.

?They were making checks using both real businesses and made up ones,? said city investigator Barry Powers who worked the cases. ?The checks weren?t stolen or anything like that. They were being made by the suspects.?

Among the businesses, both real and fictitious, on which checks were faked were Flying J Nursery, Mid TN Micro, Young and Johnson Construction, P South Design, Ben Lomand, Conner Temp Agency, Cumberland Valley Nursery and Christopher Bryan Marny.

In most cases, there were multiple checks on each of the businesses, the largest being $787 on Ben Lomand, with most of the checks being written for more than $700, with only two being for less than $200. The McWhorters face one count of forgery for passing each check and one count of theft for receiving illegal payment for each check. The bogus checks claimed to come from U.S. Bank.

In addition to the fake checks, it was also learned Mrs. McWhorter was using a counterfeit driver?s license to aid her crime. The license, bearing a Madison address, listed the holder?s name as April Journey.

Lawmen are suggesting businesses use care when cashing checks by requiring identification. It is also recommended private businesses not cash checks from businesses they have not heard of, or without checking the validity of the checks before cashing them.