Man Pleads Guilty to Forgery in Check Counterfeiting Ring

A 26-year-old Van Nuys man pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of forgery for his role in a counterfeit-check ring, which authorities say defrauded banks out of at least $350,000.

Peter Cockshutte Jr. was originally charged with 12 counts of forgery, which carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison. After a plea bargain with prosecutors, Cockshutte faces a maximum of three years in prison and may be ordered to make restitution to the banks, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bradford Stone.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge C. Bernard Kaufman scheduled sentencing for Oct. 13.

Cockshutte was one of three men arrested in June who were part of a counterfeit ring that operated for about a year in the Los Angeles area, authorities said. The scheme carried out by the ring involved banks across the city, including Security Pacific, Wells Fargo and First Interstate banks in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said.

Searched Trash

The ring went through trash outside banks getting checking account numbers and names and used a series of photocopying processes to create counterfeit checks, authorities said. Members created counterfeit driver’s licenses bearing the names and addresses on the checks, authorities said, and then used the licenses to cash the bogus checks at different bank branches, authorities said.

Most of the checks were for amounts ranging from $500 to $900, authorities said.

Cockshutte and the two others, James M. Manocheo, 23, and Robert L. Lukas, 38, both of Los Angeles, were arrested June 25 by Los Angeles police. Huntington Beach police found photocopying materials in Cockshutte’s pickup truck after an accident and notified Los Angeles police, authorities said.

After a preliminary hearing, charges were dropped against Lukas. Manocheo was sentenced in July to a year in County Jail after pleading guilty to a single count of forgery.

A woman later tied to the ring, 29-year-old Susan Tefft of Van Nuys, was sentenced in July to four years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of forgery.