Ex-Bangor man wanted in fraud caught in Ariz.

A former Bangor man wanted in connection with bilking local banks of nearly $12,000 has been arrested in Arizona, but his wife, also linked to the bank fraud, remains at large.

Scott E. Hatch, 40, was arrested Sunday in Phoenix, having eluded police in New Mexico who were looking for him and his wife, Roberta Gregory-Hatch, 48, this summer at the request of police in Bangor. The Hatches are being accused of depositing large checks from one bank account into another bank’s account, then withdrawing the money before the checks could be returned for insufficient funds.

KeyBank reported losing $4,003 in the transactions while Fleet reported a loss of $7,760.60.

Both Hatches are wanted on felony theft warrants and authorities in Maine will extradite Scott Hatch, said Bangor police Officer Larry Morrill, who has been working on the case against the couple for more than four months. It’s an extensive and complex case that fills a large binder at the police station.

But simplified, for about a month in early 2001 the Hatches used ATMs to deposit checks from Fleet Bank into KeyBank accounts and vice versa. After waiting for the funds to become available – but before the checks could be verified by the banks – the Hatches withdrew money using ATM or debit cards and went on spending sprees or stays in hotels.

Records compiled by Morrill show that on May 2, 2001, they spent $776.06 at Home Depot and $523.95 at Marden’s. Two weeks later one or both of them ran up a $438.09 charge at the Fairfield Inn. Other debit card payments were reported at Friendly Ice Cream and the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant.

The couple also manipulated the checks or used legal means to make it easier. Gregory-Hatch initially was the only one listed on the KeyBank account, but bank authorities said they used checks printed by an outside company that included Scott Hatch’s name on the account.

In addition, the couple allegedly used checks from a Barco Federal Credit Union account but a credit union official told Morrill that the checks were printed on a computer and that the routing number on the back belonged to the Bangor Federal Credit Union. Barco reported that it lost $25 as a result of the fraud.

Morrill said he is looking into whether others were involved in the check kiting scheme.

Gregory-Hatch claimed initially that she wasn’t a party to the scam. A Fleet Bank official told Morrill that Gregory-Hatch was confronted about the overdrawn checks and said that her husband was bipolar and had been kiting checks between the two banks while she was in the hospital in New Hampshire.

But Morrill said Wednesday that some of the transactions captured on video show Gregory-Hatch with her husband.

Gregory-Hatch may still have ties to Maine, although she and Scott Hatch have moved around. Anyone with information can contact Morrill at 947-7384.