A McDonald’s employee and a co-conspirator for a year allegedly stole just under $20,000 by forging and altering payroll checks from the Morrisville McDonalds, in Falls Township on West Trenton Avenue.
The victim, who owns four McDonald’s restaurants in Falls Twp called police after she discovered a theft had occurred at the West Trenton Avenue location. The January 2024 payroll showed an employee, Romual Brown, of Morrisville, cashed his checks before they were officially issued, according to the victim’s statement to the police. He is also a McDonald’s employee
The victim noticed that 36 checks were watermarked between May 26, 2023 and February 2, 2024 when she began reviewing payroll checks. She told police, the payroll company does not place watermarks on pay checks, and they were somehow altered. The fast-food restaurant owner also noticed the watermarked checks were checks she did not authorize, police said in court papers
Approximately 18 of the 36 unauthorized watermarked checks were issued to Romual, from December 30, 2022, through December 31, 2023. Among these 18 checks to Augustin, some originated as authentic paychecks from the victim to Augustin, but then were altered to contain the watermark and an unauthorized, higher payment amount than what was actually owed to him. The remaining unauthorized checks were issued to people unknown to her, said police.
The affidavit showed, the collective total of the 36 watermarked unauthorized checks stolen from her account was $28,627.31. Considering some of the authorized checks had funds that were still partially authorized, the total amount of money stolen from the victim was $19,871.45.
A search warrant was prepared for the victim’s bank account in order to obtain information about the unauthorized checks. Records indicated that the bank of first deposit (BOFD) for 29 of the 36 unauthorized checks was JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JPMC). Seven other checks had BOFDs from Wells Fargo, Regions Bank, Simmons Bank, TD Bank, and PNC Bank, according to court paperwork
A search warrant was prepared for JPMC regarding the 29 unauthorized checks. JPMC provided video surveillance for seven checks that were cashed/deposited at an ATM machine in Morrisville. Augustin and Alterrah Brown were positively identified on video as the individuals cashing the checks at the ATM. Six checks were deposited in Augustin’s JPMC account and one check was deposited into Brown’s JPMC account, said in the probable cause.
Ten checks were deposited into Augustin’s account and six checks were deposited into Brown’s account via online deposit. The final time the suspects attempted to allegedly cash in on the fraudulent checks was February 5, 2024, when accounts for both suspects were flagged with a “fraudulent/fictitious” check.
Augustin, 19-years-old, was arraigned on July 30 by Magisterial District Judge Gary Gambardella who set an unsecured bail of $100,000. His preliminary hearing, appearing before Judge John T. Galloway, is set for October 2, five days before his 20th birthday. Augustin currently has no attorney of record, according to online court records.
Brown was arraigned on August 30 by Judge Galloway who set unsecured bail at $5, 000. Preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 18 for Brown, who currently has no attorney of record, according to online court records.