Customer detained at hardware store for bogus cheque

A well-known technician from Belize City has been slapped with a charge of possession of a false document and claiming upon a forged document. Police believe that thirty-one year old Rupert Avila, a technician employed at Belizean to the Bone, is the man responsible for a bogus Scotiabank check which has been making the rounds.  According to reports, police were called to Benny’s Bargain Center on Freetown road where they found Avila and detained him. He allegedly tried to pass a check for the sum of five thousand, eight hundred and ten dollars to a cashier when the alarm was raised.  Avila appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith this morning, where he was read the charges and pleaded not guilty. He was offered bail of one thousand dollars, five hundred of which must be paid in cash and the balance as a signed surety.  Avila is to reappear in court on May twentieth. On Tuesday, the Police Department advised all business establishments to be on the lookout for forged Scotia Bank checks that were confiscated from prominent business establishments in Belize City.