MACON COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) – A suspect accused of identity theft opened bank accounts using stolen personal information and wrote checks with those accounts, deputies say.

In May 2018, investigators say Cherise Berry, 49, had a box full of blank checks and personal identification information of multiple people stored in a hotel room. They say the information in the box included numbers for bank accounts opened in the names of those people, each of whom denied ever opening those accounts in interviews.

In a complaint, Macon County deputies accused Berry of creating those bank accounts so that she could write and use forged checks. They arrested her on May 18 on charges of passing forged checks in Macon.

Deputies say they talked with a family member of Berry’s, who the suspect called from jail on a recorded line and asked to get the box of checks before deputies could. That person said Berry “has a history of identity theft”, according to the complaint, and told deputies in an interview that Berry would deposit checks into a bank using a phone and then take money out of an ATM right away.

Sworn statements from deputies say Berry could be seen on security cameras writing 13 forged checks at five Casey’s stores in October of 2018. The documents say Casey’s corporate leaders told store managers that the checks weren’t clearing, and in one case learned that a person whose name Barry used on checks had died. Deputies say another person named on checks had closed their account in 2015.

Berry is accused of buying items involving food, drinks, lighters, boxes of cigarettes, gas and candy with the 13 checks. A total of over $900 was spent using the checks, according to deputies. Investigators say the Casey’s stores where Berry used the checks were in Mt. Zion, Forsyth, Long Creek, Argenta and Blue Mound.

Berry is also accused of using forged checks at Huck’s Convenience Store in Decatur, which is located at 204 N. 22nd St. Deputies say she went into the store three times on June 24 and used the checks to buy cigarettes and gas. The person named on those checks denied ever opening an account with the bank listed.

Investigators arrested Berry again on March 8, 2019. She’s facing 13 total charges, including counts of forgery, identity theft, retail theft and direct criminal contempt. Her bond is set at $115,000.

Court records show Berry has six previous convictions for larceny, one previous forgery conviction and another for fraudulent activity.