Logan woman who passed false check confesses to more fraud

LOGAN — A 42-year-old Logan woman, who stole money from at least nine local businesses by trying to pass false checks, has admitted to another fraud charge. Tori C. Searle is already serving a jail sentence of up to one-year or until she pays back the money.

Searle appeared in 1st District Court Wednesday morning. She pleaded guilty to a new charge of attempted communications fraud, a class A misdemeanor.

Cache County deputy attorney Spencer Walsh explained that in September 2018 Searle gave one of the victims a credit card that was supposed to have money on it after the sale of a car. The funds were never transferred to the card’s account though.

Walsh said that Searle later claimed she would give the victim a cashier’s check for some of the restitution amount but never did.

Defense attorney Mike McGinnis said the charge was partly a misunderstanding because Searle was incarcerated and had difficulty communicating with the victim. He also explained that it was difficult for his client to pay restitution because she already has to pay the jail to be on work-release.

In January 2016, Searle wrote checks that had belonged to a man who had passed away. She then cashed those checks at local businesses.

Later that year, Searle accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to all charges. As part of the agreement, the charges were suspended if she successfully completed Drug Court, a weekly supervised treatment program, and paid $2,381 back to the businesses.

During Wednesday’s court appearance, Walsh said he was willing to give Searle one more chance. He asked the court to sentence her to more jail time, but warned that he would ask for prison next time, if she doesn’t make an effort to payback the victims.

Judge Thomas Willmore agreed with Walsh and sentenced Searle to another year in jail. It will run consecutively with her current sentence.


[email protected]

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.