Couple busted for passing bad checks

A Memphis couple was in the Donley County Jail this week after passing at least 30 worthless checks to businesses in Clarendon.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said 53-year-old Darryl Smith and 31-year-old Amy Smith were each being held on $10,000 bond and facing charges of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity – Theft, a third degree felony.

Authorities received a call from Bronco Burger last Thursday, March 18, about worthless checks being passed in Clarendon. The restaurant had received three such checks, and the establishment’s owners reported that the subjects had also passed checks at a Taylor’s convenience store here.

As the sheriff’s department began investigating the case, the couple was reported at Taylor’s again and was later stopped at White’s Feed & Seed, where they were arrested and booked into jail.

Blackburn said the checks were on the couple’s own bank account but that the account had been closed for several months. The checks ranged in amount from $2 to over $200, and the Smiths had started passing them locally on March 12.

“On March 17 and 18 alone the checks totaled about $700,” Blackburn said. “We expect to be bombarded with the bad checks from businesses in the next couple of weeks.”

The sheriff said the couple admitted to planning to use the money from the bad checks to buy crack cocaine.