Couple charged with counterfeiting
A local couple faces counterfeiting charges after they were caught allegedly passing computer-generated $50 bills.
Charged with four counts of criminal simulation is Deidra Kester, while her partner in crime, Joshua Lee Roark, is charged with one count of criminal simulation. They will face preliminary hearing Oct. 9 before General Sessions Judge Larry Ross.
The charges were leveled after Kester passed the phony $50 bills at Whitlock’s Store and at a yard sale, using the fake $50 at the yard sale to purchase baby clothes. She also tried, unsuccessfully, to pass two more of the counterfeit bills at Verizon Wireless and BJ’s. It was her failed attempts to pass the fake bills that caught the attention of law enforcement.
‘The bills looked pretty good for computer-generated bills,’ said Warren County sheriff’s investigator Jim Hartman who charged the couple.
From Kester, lawmen tracked the phony bills back to Roark, who was reportedly in possession of $2,000 worth of counterfeit bills, including denomination of $100s and $50s. However, by the time lawmen arrived, they say Roark had done away with the evidence.
‘He became concerned when Ms. Kester got into trouble so he destroyed the rest of the bills,’ said Hartman, noting lawmen believe all of the counterfeit bills which were in Roark’s possession are gone. ‘He said he destroyed $1,800 worth of the bills so that should mean all the phony bills are accounted for.’
While the bills in Roark’s possession were the ones Kester was spending, lawmen believe Roark actually received his bills from another source, meaning there could still be more of the phony bills being put into circulation by the actual counterfeiters.
‘We believe he acquired these bills from another source so there’s always a chance they are still making these bills and trying to pass them,’ Hartman warned. ‘We need merchants to be kind of careful when they’re taking these denominations just to be on the safe side and to call us immediately if they come across one of these bills.’
While the current advisory is for fake $50 and $100 bills, the most often counterfeited bill is the $20.