Fraudulent Cleaning Services Check Leads to NJ Man Being Swept to Jail

A Gloucester City, New Jersey man thought he had the plan as he tried to clean out some funds from a local bank using a fraudulent check but instead he was swept up by Middletown Township Police when attempting to cash it.

According to the probable cause, on January 6, 2025, at around 3:15 p.m., police responded to the TD Bank, located at 2000 block of E. Lincoln Hwy, in Levittown, for the report of a male, later identified as Arthur Smith, 49, who was attempting to cash a fraudulent check.

The check showed it belonged to Ultimate Cleaning Service, which a separate TD Bank location confirmed was a company assigned to a fraudulent check incident which occurred in their jurisdiction, police said in court papers. 

Smith, police say attempted to cash the check from that known, fraudulent business, which was hand-written out to be paid to him, but the transaction was stopped upon a bank employee knowing the check was fraudulent.

Smith was taken into custody. A search incident to arrest said police found a needle and pipe in his possession. 

He was charged with one count of felony forgery, misdemeanor counts of receiving stolen property, bad checks, and use of drug paraphernalia. 

Magisterial District Judge Kevin P. Wagner arraigned Smith and remanded him to Bucks County Jail on 10 percent of $200,000.00 with a court date currently scheduled for January 16.