By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

Craig Allen Burnworth

LEESBURG — An Etna Green man was recently arrested after allegedly forging a check from a business he was formerly employed at.

Craig Allen Burnworth, 42, 110 S. Etna St. Lot 40, Etna Green, is charged with forgery and theft, both level 6 felonies.

On Aug. 5, 2022, a Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to a fraud report. A man said an unauthorized check was written on his business’s bank statement on July 7, 2022.

According to court documents, the check was written to Burnworth, a former employee of the business, in the amount of $1,500. The check was cashed at a Rochester bank on July 11, 2022.

The man told the deputy he gave Burnworth permission to go to a location in Leesburg between July 6 and 7, 2022, to pick up a jet ski on a trailer. He said the jet ski was picked up but that his office appeared to have been ransacked.

On Sept. 22, 2022, a KCSO detective went to the Rochester bank where the check was cashed. Photo images showed Burnworth as the individual cashing the check.

The detective interviewed Burnworth on Oct. 7, 2022. During the interview, Burnworth admitted to taking a blank check and writing it out to himself.

Burnworth was previously convicted of conversion in Elkhart County in March 2019.

Burnworth was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail on May 4, 2023, with a $5,250 surety and cash bond.