MONCKS CORNER, SC (WCSC) -
Six people accused of running a phony title loan scheme out of Moncks Corner business have been arrested, police said Friday.
Investigators said the scheme was run out of the Title Max on Highway 52.
Police said employees 35 year old Susan Gould, 27 year old Eric Cumbee and 37 year old Jodi Pendergast created fraudulent title loans and had customers and family members cash the checks.
"Basically what they were doing is creating fictitious loans on titles, getting checks for five thousand dollars for each one of these loans," said Moncks Corner Police Lt. Michael Roach.
Detectives said two customers and the son of one of the employees cashed the checks.
Twenty nine year old Dolores Lopez, 29 year old Sametria Barr and Pendergast's son, 19 year old Harley Rainwater also were arrested.
Investigators say the fraudulent checks were made out to them and also cashed by them.
"They would issue the check for five thousand dollars, person would go cash it and then they would split the proceeds," Roach said.
Roach said the suspects took old titles, used white out on them and typed in fake vehicle identification numbers.
Then Title Max managers did an audit.
"They found five loans for five thousand dollars each that were very suspicious and they called us. It didn't take much to figure it out," Roach said.
Police arrested Gould in Jacksonville, Fla. on Friday. All six are facing charges ranging from grand larceny to criminal conspiracy.
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