A suspect in a check fraud case at Citizens First Bank has landed behind bars on new check fraud charges.
Georgianna Lang Antich, 40, of Belleview, was booked last week at the Marion County Jail on charges of fraud and grand theft. She had cashed checks drawn on a Hamlet Construction Co. account, a company that was bought out in 2019 by Miller Pipeline, and FastTrack Staffing. The checks were cashed at a convenience store in Ocala.
At the time of this arrest, Antich was free on bond, following her arrest earlier this year in Sumter County.
Antich allegedly went March 4 to the Citizens First Bank branch at Spanish Plaines Plaza and gave the teller a business check displaying the name, “Bar B Q Management,” which had been made payable to Antich in the amount of $267.86. She kept $50 cash and “deposited the rest of the money into her newly-created Citizens First Bank personal checking account. This check was later determined by the bank to be fraudulent,” according to an arrest report.
The following day, Antich went to the Citizens First Bank branch at Southern Trace Plaza and gave the teller a business check from “Bar B Q Management” made payable to her in the amount of $305.85. She took the entire amount in cash.
Antich returned to the bank at Spanish Plaines Plaza on March 8 and handed the teller a check from “Swampdog LLC” in the amount of $323.42. She received the full amount in cash.
The checks were determined to be fraudulent.
Antich was released from state prison on April 1, 2019 after serving time on multiple charges of fraud, theft and trafficking in stolen property.
Those crimes included fraud charges stemming from a period in which Antich worked as a server at Gator’s Dockside at Spanish Springs Town Square. Customers had started returning to the restaurant after noticing they had been billed twice for their meals. A manager refunded the customers and tracked the transactions to Antich. She was confronted by the manager and terminated. Antich would have one table that paid cash and another that paid with a credit card. She would keep the cash and used the credit card to pay the other diner’s check. She would also add a tip for herself on the additional bill paid with the credit card.
In 2015, Antich was arrested after stealing clothes for her children at Bealls.