A Yazoo County man allegedly went on a major spending spree throughout the state using bad checks to purchase vehicles and other items. He was recently arrested after using several bad checks at a Benton store with the investigation leading to other illegal purchases across Mississippi.
Johnathan Taylor, 21, was charged with 14 counts of false pretense.
Terry Gann, chief investigator with the Yazoo County Sheriff’s Department, said Taylor allegedly wrote 14 bad checks to Berry’s over a period of time.
“He wrote the checks from a checking account that had been closed for some time,” Gann said. “Through the investigation, it was later found that he was involved in similar crimes all over the state.”
In other counties, Taylor allegedly purchased a truck, a car and a side-by-side utility vehicle using bad checks.
“We first started hearing about this case when other jurisdictions were reporting the purchase of vehicles illegally with these bad checks,” Gann said. “When the owner of Berry’s came forward with all the bad checks, we started to connect the dots.”
Gann said the utility vehicle had been recovered by the sheriff’s department.
