MARION COUNTY, Fla.,None — An elaborate check cashing operation started a month ago in Marion County and investigators said the suspects used the homeless to do their dirty work.
It took Ocala police and Marion County deputies more than a month to bust an illegal check cashing ring, but the Orlando ringleader is still on the run, authorities said.
The Sheriff's Office said it has caught more than its share of people passing bad checks. But detectives said this was one of the biggest rings they've ever broken.
Investigators said 38-year-old Demetrius Price of Orlando was the ringleader. They said he got his hands on the bank account and routing numbers of a couple of local businesses, printed up phony payroll checks and issued them to homeless men whom he hired to cash the checks.
"They're presented a paycheck, a payroll check made out to their name to a business that they have never worked for," said Detective James Hoydic of the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators said they would then be taken in groups of threes to convenience stores and supermarkets, including a local Winn-Dixie, and cash checks for $800 each.
Detectives believe there were several trips over the last two years. They've arrested half a dozen people so far, who they said recruited homeless men found outside a local hotel and the Salvation Army and then drove them to the stores to cash the checks.
Everyone involved got a small cut of the loot, but Price pocketed the bulk of it, detectives said.
It fell apart when a couple of the homeless men were busted for passing the bad checks and they told police what was going on.
"Fortunately, this ring had some leaks, and we were able to track it down and catch the big fish, so to say," said Hoydic.
The biggest fish is Price, and he faces 21 counts of forgery and fraud and deputies said he's done prison time for the same crime.