Woman Who Wrote Bad Checks For South Jersey Homes Sentenced: AG

A New York woman has been sentenced to four years in state prison after admitting her role in a scheme to use bad checks to purchase three homes in South Jersey, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced on Friday.

Tara Stokes, 50, of Flushing, N.Y., previously pleaded guilty to a second-degree charge of theft by deception. She was indicted along with 48-year-old Lawrence T. Humphrey, of Brooklyn, N.Y., in December 2016.

Humphrey is wanted as a fugitive and faces pending second-degree charges of conspiracy, theft by deception and passing bad checks. Charges against him remain accusations, and he remains innocent unless and until proven guilty. His image can be found below.

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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.

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 main image of Tara Stokes and the below image of Lawrence Humphrey were provided by the Attorney General’s Office