Mays Landing Man Wanted By Police on Check Washing Charge

Stafford Township Police has issued an arrest warrant for Elijah M. Avant, 25, of Mays Landing, on charges that he took a check mailed, altered, and fraudulently cashed it.

Stafford Twp Police Looking For Suspected Check Washer

In a release, Stafford Township Police said they had a complaint in early January from Dubois & Associates, a Manahawkin environmental consulting company, that they had been the victims of a check-washing crime in the previous months.

"Check washing" is a form of fraud where thieves steal checks from the mail, and then use chemicals to erase the original payee and amount information.

This allows them to rewrite it for a larger sum of money and deposit it into their account; essentially "washing" away the original details to create a new, fraudulent check.

The Stafford Twp Police investigation found that this is what happened to Dubois & Associates.

They suspect that Elijah M. Avant is the person who committed the crime.

The police executed an arrest warrant for Avant on Thursday, March 6th.

He is being charged with third-degree counts of forgery, theft by deception, and receiving stolen property.