Police Arrest Man Seeking To Defraud Bank

By Andrew Gorosko

After being alerted to a case of attempted bank fraud, police responded to a branch office of Chase Bank at 30 Church Hill Road about noon on October 25, and arrested a New York State man on eight criminal charges after he allegedly used another person’s identity in trying to fraudulently obtain money from the bank.

Police said they were called at 12:02 pm by a bank official who explained that there was a man inside the bank attempting to cash a check using a bank account number that was on the bank’s “fraud alert” list. The man was seeking to cash a check for approximately $4,000, police said.

Police patrol officers and detectives went to the bank to interview the man, Francis Cunningham, 53, of 37 Millington Street, Mount Vernon, N.Y.

After investigating, police charged Cunningham with two counts of first degree forgery, one count of second degree forgery, criminal impersonation, interfering with police, identity theft, improper use of a driver’s license, and criminal attempt to commit third degree larceny.

Police said Cunningham had been attempting to cash a counterfeit check at the bank. Cunningham had a counterfeit Connecticut driver’s license and a counterfeit MasterCard credit card, which he was using for identification purposes, police said.

In seeking to cash the counterfeit check, Cunningham was using a New York City woman’s name, social security number, and bank account number, police said. The woman had a first name that is used by both genders, police said.

Police held Cunningham on $1 million bail for arraignment on the charges October 26 in Danbury Superior Court.

In court, a judge lowered Cunningham’s bail to $250,000. Cunningham was being held October 27 in the Bridgeport Correctional Center for his next court appearance.