Antioch-area man charged in fraud case

A 57-year-old Lake County man has been charged with theft and forgery after taking more than $36,000 in pension benefits of a person who has been dead for more than three years, police said.

Timothy Staples, 57, of the 27000 block of Wilmot Road in unincorporated Lake County near Antioch, is free on $50,000 personal bond after being arrested earlier this week, Antioch Police Chief Craig Somerville said Friday.

Staples did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Somerville said police were contacted by the fraud department of the State Bank of the Lakes on Dec. 19 saying it had recently received a request from an overseas bank looking for the return of more than three years of direct deposit pension checks totaling more than $36,000.

German bank officials informed the Antioch bank, Somerville said, that they had been paying pension checks to a person who has been dead since April 2008.

The State Bank of the Lakes fraud department investigated the matter, Somerville said, and discovered Staples had been forging the dead man’s signature on checks. Staples never reported the death to the German bank, Somerville added.

Before the man’s death in 2008, he and Staples had lived together for 15 years, the investigation showed, officials said.

Staples was charged with felony theft and forgery, Somerville said. He is due back in court Jan. 12.

If found guilty of either charge, he could face up to seven years behind bars and a fine of $25,000.