ROCKINGHAM — Investigators with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office have charged another woman and filed additional charges against a defendant in a financial crime case.
Kimberly Lynn Cox, 56, of Rockingham, is the fifth individual to be charged in connection to a case involving the banking account of the late John T. Grant, who passed away in late 2023.
Cox is accused of using money from Grant’s account to pay bills and “to support financial struggles and gain financial benefits.” However, no specifics are given in the warrant, issued July 29.
The offense date is listed as April 2 and Cox was arrested the same day the warrant was issued, charged with one felony count each of obtaining property by false pretenses and identity theft, as well as one misdemeanor count of possession or manufacture of a fraudulent ID.
Cox was booked into the Richmond County Jail at 1:13 a.m. July 30 and is being held on a $10,000 secured bond. She is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 14.
Investigators also filed more charges against 36-year-old Mary Elizabeth Collins of Hamlet.
Collins is accused of printing out counterfeit checks with Grant’s information and selling that information to several other people. Multiple individuals are named in the warrant, but not all have been served at this time. She also allegedly passed a fraudulent check for $7,000 at Griffin Toyota.
A warrant for Collins’ arrest was also issued July 29 charging her with: uttering a forged endorsement; forgery of an instrument; trafficking stolen identities; and forgery.
She is being held without bond.
Collins is one of four who have already been charged in the case. Investigators say more arrests are pending.
Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Cox has a history of fraud.
From 1989-1990, Cox was convicted on seven counts of writing a worthless check and one count of misdemeanor larceny.
In 1995, Cox was convicted on two counts of forgery of bank notes. The following year, she was convicted on four counts obtaining property with a worthless check.
From 1998-1999, she was convicted on numerous accounts of forgery and fraud related charges. One of those was in Moore County, the rest were in Richmond County.
Other convictions include:
2007 - unauthorized use of motor conveyance
2008 - misdemeanor breaking and entering, misdemeanor larceny
2015 - six counts of obtaining property by false pretenses
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
