NY Couple Wrote Bad Checks In Purchases Of 3 South Jersey Homes: AG

A man and a woman from New York State have been indicted for using bad checks to purchase three homes in South Jersey, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said on Monday.

Tara Stokes, 48, of Flushing, N.Y., and Lawrence T. Humphrey, 48, of Brooklyn, N.Y., were indicted by a state grand jury on Friday, Dec. 9, on second-degree charges of conspiracy, three counts of theft by deception, and three counts of passing bad checks.

Authorities say Stokes and Humphrey used checks drawn from a closed bank account to buy two homes in Gloucester County and one in Winslow Township, Camden County. The Gloucester County homes were in Greenwich Township and Monroe Township.

The account was opened under the auspices of the Law Offices of Tara Humphrey, authorities said.

The only problem is that Tara Stokes is not a lawyer, and no such law firm exists, according to authorities.
They wrote multiple bad checks, writing new checks when the first checks bounced, authorities allege.

Three bad checks for $240,000 were written for the Monroe property, all from the account of the fictitious law firm, authorities said.

Bad checks for $296,639 and $299,139 were issued for the Greenwich property. In this instance, authorities claim the second check was drawn on a different bank account that had insufficient funds.

A bad check for $305,684 drawn on the law firm account was written for the Winslow property. The defendants also wrote bad checks for $2,500 and $10,000 from that account to pay deposits on the Greenwich and Winslow homes, authorities said.

While titles for the three properties changed hands at the closings, in each case the fraud was quickly uncovered and the deed was not recorded, authorities said.

The state’s investigation began with a referral from a law firm representing the title company that handled the closing for the Monroe Township property.

The attached images of Tara Stokes and Lawrence Humphrey were provided by the Attorney General’s Office