Dawson city employee cleared in potential fraud investigation

DAWSON — The Dawson Police Department announced Thursday that a City of Dawson employee who was under investigation for potential check fraud has been cleared after it was uncovered the situation was caused by a bank error.

Certain media outlets reported Wednesday that an unnamed, part-time employee of the City of Dawson was being investigated by the Albany Police Department (APD) after Dawson Police had contacted APD about the employee having made a mobile deposit of a payroll check and then potentially having also deposited the same check at the bank later in the day, which had occurred in Albany.

At that time the employee was told not attend work until the investigation was complete.

According to Dawson Police Detective Gene Shattles, speaking on behalf of Dawson Police Chief Charlie Whitehead, the employee in question was cleared Thursday morning after evidence was obtained from the bank showing that the Dawson employee was not at fault and the double deposit was, in fact, a bank error.

“We got everything cleared up,” Shattles said.

Shattles did add that although there were ultimately no charges filed in this case and the Dawson employee was cleared and allowed to return to work, check fraud stemming from mobile deposits is an ongoing issue for the police department.

“We have a lot of those cases,” said Shattles. “People do the mobile deposit then go to the bank and deposit the same check and that’s how we catch them.”

Shattles also said that the police department had tried to keep the investigation into the city employee internal and not release a name or any particulars until charges were filed in case it turned out to be a bank error and not a fraud situation.