SC woman wrote $98K check to buy new car. Here’s what happened after cops say it bounced
A South Carolina woman was arrested for writing a bad check to buy a new car, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
On March 7, Felicia Lyles wrote a $98,547 check for a new model Ford vehicle from a dealership in Sumter, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. But the 40-year-old Charleston resident did not have the sufficient funds to cut a check in that amount and it bounced, according to the release.
Information about what model Ford was bought was not available.
After she was informed and given time to correct the error, Lyles did not clear the outstanding amount but maintained possession of the vehicle, the sheriff’s office said.
An arrest warrant was issued on May 6, and Lyles was taken into custody on May 9, according to the release.
Lyles was charged with with obtaining property by false pretenses and was booked at the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center, according to the release. On May 10, Lyles was released after posting a $25,000 surety bond, Sumter County court records show.
This was not the first time Lyles has been charged with a financial crime.
She was arrested in December 2020 on a financial identity fraud or identity fraud charge, according to Charleston County court records. That charge is still pending after Lyles was released on $100,000 surety bond, court records show.
About a month after police say she wrote the bad check to get the new Ford, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Lyles with identify theft, aggravated identity theft, three counts of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud and two counts of making false financial statements, the Post and Courier reported. Some of the charges from the April 2022 arrest stem from an accusation that Lyles used money wired from a Charleston Baptist church bank account to pay a credit card bill, according to the news outlet.
