Man accused of stealing thousands with fake checks
ANCHORAGE - A California man is accused of stealing the identity of an Anchorage man and swindling thousands of dollars from businesses in the victim's name.
Albert A. Bachelier III, charged with numerous felony counts, told Anchorage police he dug through trash bins at a state Division of Motor Vehicles office and other places around town to get the records to assume another identity and create fake checks, according to charging documents filed in court this week.
Police first learned of the scheme Aug. 28, when an employee at Anchorage Water and Wastewater Consultants discovered a $1,500 counterfeit check made payable from her business to the man whose identity was stolen.
In September, the woman reported two more fake checks made payable to the same man, for the amounts of $2,872.55 and $2,355.60, charging documents show.
The checks were deposited into an account at E-Trade bank in Virginia, charges say. Police contacted the bank and learned that the account had been opened over the Internet and that more than $11,000 had moved through it, according to court documents.
A bank official told police the account holder had been issued an ATM credit card and checks in the victim's name. All checks deposited in the account turned out to be counterfeits, charges say.
The Virginia bank also provided police with an address on the account. When police tracked it to a private post office box in Anchorage, they found it registered to Bachelier, charges say.
The credit card in the identity theft victim's name eventually led police to Bachelier, who was staying at an Eagle River inn under the victim's name, charges say.
Bachelier told detectives he had just arrived in Alaska from California in July.