Langley RCMP has charged a 34 year-old Surrey resident who spun her tale of woe into YOUR money in HER pocket.
These offences took place throughout October and November where the suspect approaches an unsuspecting, kind-hearted individual and tells her story of recently moving to the area, losing her identification and needing to cash a personal cheque.
She asks her ‘target’ to cash a cheque at their bank so she isn’t charged a fee at a ‘cheque cashing store’. Instead, she gives the fee to the ‘target’. Various method are used to extract the cash from the ‘target’ including ATM withdrawals, purchase of gift cards and debit purchases where additional cash back is requested. Everyone’s happy, right? WRONG!
Unfortunately, the kind-hearted individual in one particular occurrence is out nearly $1000 after finding out the cheque was drawn on an account that closed three years ago.
The truly sad thing is, this has happened more than once. We would all love to be part of a ‘pay it forward’ moment where we help someone out who then does a good turn for another person… Regrettably, not everyone is deserving of our benevolent actions.
Sherri Jean Lee CLARKE has been charged with two counts of Identity Theft, Use of a Forged Document, Possession of a Fraudulent Credit Card, nine counts of Possession of Stolen Property, Possession of Stolen Identity Documents, and Fraud. She will next appear in Surrey Provincial Court on December 8th. Allegedly, CLARKE was in possession of over stolen cheques worth over $11,000.
