City Woman Charged in Bad Checks Scheme

An Allentown man on probation for passing bad checks allegedly admitted to doing more of the same – this time having a friend from Bethlehem cash or deposit $6,350 in checks he made out to her knowing he did not have sufficient funds in his account, according to court records.

Keith M. Jacoby, 47, of 634 Kiowa St. on Allentown’s east side, and Christina Ann Rader, 37, of 2510 Reigle St., Bethlehem, allegedly conducted the scheme involving five checks between late May and early June 2011.

Complaints by Bethlehem police Det. Jason S. Fulmer was filed Jan. 9 and signed by District Judge James Narlesky. Jacoby and Rader were both arraigned Tuesday.

The records say the checks were both cashed and deposited. Under a charge of theft by deception, police write that Jacoby issued personal checks from his checking account to Rader and received money from Rader once a check was cashed.

Elsewhere, the records say that between May 31 and June 7, the friend deposited five personal checks totaling $6,350 into her account at . Jacoby issued the checks to her from his account with TD Bank, the records say.

A National Penn Bank fraud investigator contacted police about the case. Each check was returned for non-sufficient funds, the bank sent a letter to Rader for each bad check and also sent a certified letter to the friend, the records say.

According to court papers, Rader admitted to Fulmer that she provided money to Jacoby after cashing checks. Jacoby, meanwhile, admitted to another detective that he wrote the checks to Rader knowing he did not have sufficient funds to cover the checks and that he received money after she cashed checks.

In addition to theft by deception, Jacoby was charged with bad checks. He was arraigned by on-duty District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township and released on $7,500 unsecured bail.

Rader was charged with bad checks and released on $15,000 unsecured bail, following her arraignment before Narlesky.