5 charged for cashing fake checks

Five New York City residents were arrested at TD Bank on West Merrick Road yesterday after Nassau County police found them trying to cash fraudulent checks, police said.

Bureau of Special Operations officers said they were on patrol when they saw Brian Ledbetter, 33, Gregory Allen, 22, and Kevin Huffman, 25, all of the Bronx, Khadijah Harrison, 20, of Staten Island, and Eric Arjune, 20, of Brooklyn, “acting suspiciously” outside the bank, at 275 Merrick Road, at 2 p.m.

The officers went inside the bank, where a teller told them about a fraudulent transaction. Police said they discovered that the defendants had cashed fraudulent checks totaling more than $500 at the bank earlier in the day. They were found in possession of twenty fraudulent checks when they were arrested, police said.

Ledbetter, Huffman and Allen were each charged with three counts of second-degree possession of a forged instrument. Harrison and Arjune were each charged with 11 counts of second-degree possession of a forged instrument. All five were arraigned Friday at First District Court in Hempstead.