IRVINE : Man Arrested in $50,000 Check Fraud

Fraud investigators arrested a New York man suspected of stealing and forging more than $50,000 in checks from a health care company over five months, authorities said Friday.

Detectives stopped Steven Troy Wozencraft, 30, as he stepped off a plane from Hong Kong at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday afternoon.

Wozencraft, who shared an office suite with Omni Health Care Services of Irvine, is suspected of intercepting mail containing checks for Omni between December, 1992, and last May, said Sgt. Dwight Henninger, who heads the Police Department’s economic crime unit.

Wozencraft allegedly deposited the checks, ranging from $500 to $4,200, into a dormant account run by Omni and then forged checks and account transfers to move the money into his personal account, Henninger said. Investigators don’t know what Wozencraft did with the money.

Wozencraft at one time worked for Omni and thus knew about the dormant account and which mail to take, Henninger said.

The president and vice president of Omni told police about the suspected theft in May after they noticed activity in the once-dormant account, Henninger said.

Wozencraft, who is employed by a company called Executive Center Travel, was booked in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana on suspicion of grand theft.

He was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach.