Man forged name, deposited check for $23K from McHenry car dealership into his own account

A man has pleaded guilty to intercepting a check for more than $23,000 from a McHenry dealership and was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge and ordered to pay restitution.

Leterius Bonds, 25, of Evergreen Park, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of forging or altering a document, a Class 3 felony, according to a judgment order in McHenry County court. Bonds admitted to altering a check – initially made out to Pavement Solutions LLC in Richmond and issued by Gary Lang Auto Group on Oct. 26, 2021, in the amount of $23,213 – to make himself the recipient. He cashed the check days later and deposited the funds into his own account, defrauding the auto group, according to court documents.

In exchange for the guilty plea, additional charges of theft and forgery were dismissed, records show. Bonds was ordered to pay $23,246.59 in restitution to Gary Lang. Bonds paid $9,000 on Friday as the judge ordered, his attorney Robert Deters said. Bonds must pay a minimum of $595 per month until he reaches the full amount of restitution, according to the sentencing order.

The dealership was sold to Castle Chevrolet, and Lang retired in September 2022 after 32 years. He declined to comment when reached Monday.

Mike Fullmer, the general manager of Castle Chevrolet who had worked for Lang, said this is not the first time their checks have been intercepted through the mail. It has happened with checks written to local businesses and payroll checks.

“It has happened to us a few times,” Fullmer said. “We write a check to a local business, if that check comes back, as in this case, it gets returned [often due to a wrong address], but when it gets returned, it somehow got to someone else.”

In this case, as well as the others, the dealership learned that the check did not go to the right payee when the pavement company called. When officials at the dealership tried to stop payment, they learned that the check already had been cashed, he said. They later saw that the payee’s name on the check was altered and made out to Bonds. Fullmer said he believes the checks are being given to the would-be thieves somehow through the postal service.

“We are pleased this case [was] resolved by making Gary Lang Auto whole,” Deters said.