Millville Woman Arrested In Check-Kiting Scheme

Millville – The Delaware State Police have arrested a 46-year-old Millville woman for 108 fraudulent related charges after she was involved in a check-kiting scheme that has resulted in over $14,000 taken from a local bank.

The investigation began after authorities with the Wilmington Trust Bank in Millville contacted state police after discovering irregularities in personal and business checking accounts opened in July and August of ’08 by Wanda M. Wendell of Millville.

Detectives learned that Ms. Wendell had opened these accounts and deposited several checks into them from another account she held at the Chevy Chase Bank. However, the Chevy Chase account had insufficient funds to cover balance of the deposited checks.

Additionally, detectives learned that Ms. Wendell had deposited several of the insufficient fund checks from the Chevy Chase account into the automated teller machine at the Wilmington Trust, thus giving her next day availability to withdraw money from the Wilmington Trust account. Ms. Wendell would then withdraw the money before the bank realized the check was returned for insufficient funding.

On other occasions, she would write a check out for cash from the Chevy Chase account to the Wilmington Trust account and receive the monies instantly, again before the bank gained knowledge of the insufficient funds. Ms. Wendell was responsible for completing over eighty fraudulent transactions between July and October in 2008 netting a total loss of $14,013.14 to Wilmington Trust Bank.

Detectives also learned that Ms. Wendell deposited approximately $4,700 of legitimate funds into these accounts during the same period in an effort to conceal the fraud. By doing this, she was attempting to deceive the banks by creating the impression the insufficient funding in her accounts were oversights and not deliberate actions.

During the investigation, detectives discovered Ms. Wendell’s actions were intentional and she was arrested yesterday for 18 felony counts of Theft by False Pretense, 4 felony counts of issuing a Bad Check, 90 misdemeanor counts of Theft by False Pretense and 21 misdemeanor counts of Issuing a Bad Check. She was released on a $62,500 unsecured bail.