PAWNEE COUNTY—A jury on Wednesday found a Kansas man guilty of felony charges of Forgery and Theft by Deception.
The two-day trial was conducted in the Pawnee County District Court against Adam Collinge, 43 of Topeka, according to Pawnee County Attorney Doug McNett.
The charges stem from an allegation that on January 19, 2022, Collinge passed a forged check at a bank in Larned, Kansas, that had been written on the account of a Lawrence based business.
At trial, the State presented testimony that in addition to the check presented in Larned, Collinge also presented similar checks that same afternoon at three other branches of the bank in Central Kansas. While Collinge was able to cash checks at the first three branches he entered, the fourth bank declined the attempted transaction after determining it to be suspicion.
Representatives from the business testified Collinge had never been employed by their business and that they had not authorized the issuance of any checks to Collinge. Employees from the bank testified that the Collinge received a total of $8,264.30 from the bank and that the bank reversed the debits from the business’s account since they were fraudulent transactions.
Collinge testified on his own behalf at the trial and advised the Jury that he had been picked up by two unknown men in Topeka that morning and offered construction work in Western Kansas. When they arrived in Central Kansas, he was told all they needed him to do was cash checks.
He testified he was paid $200 for each check cashed. He further testified he was told the excess money was going to be used to pay undocumented workers who had actually performed the discussed construction work.
The Larned Police Department handled the investigation as to the check presented in Pawnee County.
The jury made up of 5 men and 7 women deliberated for approximately thirty-minutes Wednesday before returning Guilty verdicts on both counts.
Under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Collinge faces a sentence between 7 months and 23 months in the custody of the Department of Corrections depending on his criminal history. He remains free on supervised release.