CdM teacher is arrested for allegedly writing bad checks

NEWPORT BEACH — A private school teacher suspected of writing an estimated $2,700 in bad checks was arrested just outside of the school where he works Monday afternoon.

Frank Vaccaro, 36, a physical education instructor at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Corona del Mar, had just finished coaching a basketball game when Huntington Beach Police arrested him. After pleading with detectives to move somewhere less visible by his students, he surrendered.

Det. Dave Humphreys began looking into Vaccaro’s suspected fraudulent banking transactions in October when an Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union investigator contacted Humphreys.

The bank’s investigator told him that Vaccaro had “deposited three $900 checks from a closed account he once had with Bank of America, and soon after those deposits were made he immediately began taking money out from the [credit union] account,” Humphreys said.

He owes the credit union roughly $2,500 from the allegedly illicit withdrawals made from his account, police said.

“Basically, he created fictitious deposits using a closed account,” Humphreys said.

Investigators from the credit union made several attempts to contact the school teacher by phone and mail, but he never responded, Humphreys said, adding, “It was then that they contacted the local police to review the case.”

Detectives searched the teacher’s red Ford F-150 in the school parking lot, finding numerous statements from both banks and a letter from the Orange County District Attorney’s Bad Check Restitution Program.

Vaccaro’s last known residence was in Huntington Beach, although police were unsure if he still lives at that address.

He was being held late Monday at Huntington Beach City Jail on $10,000 bail, police said.