Christine Francies

WARSAW — A Fort Wayne resident was sentenced Thursday, March 16, after writing more than $5,000 in fraudulent checks.

Christine Francies, 9905 Oak Trail Road, Fort Wayne, will receive no time in jail or probation for incidents that caused her arrest in August 2016.

Francies charges stem from incidents that occurred over several months. According to the affidavit of probable cause, in February, 2016, the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department received a call from a local bank stating Francies had deposited a check with them on Dec. 21, 2015, for $5,000, on an account from another financial institution. The check was payable to a company Francies owned.

The next day, Dec. 22, 2015, Francies wrote a check to another business for $5,000, thus removing the $5,000 she had initially deposited in the account. After that, Francies reportedly continued writing checks on that account.

On Dec. 24, 2015, the $5,000 check that had been deposited came back from the other financial institution as “insufficient funds.” The bank attempted but was unable to establish contact with Francies.

The bank representative discovered on Feb. 17, that Francies’ account was closed and overdrawn by $5,570. In addition, when Francies deposited the $5,000 check in December, the account it was written from contained only $108.57.

During her sentencing, Francies’ lawyer Austin Rovenstine told Judge David Cates that he should take into account that this was the first time she had been in trouble. He stated the theft had been caused by “mitigating factors.” He noted because of these circumstances, she was unlikely to commit such a crime again.

Rovenstine also told Cates that “Restitution was paid in full.”

Cates stated that because she had made restitution and because of the mitigating circumstances at the time of the theft, he would  grant her no jail or probation time during her suspended year. Cates stated that if she does get in trouble in the next year, her suspended sentence would be revoked.