The fourth person connected with a scheme to defraud a local bank last summer was arrested on a warrant Monday morning, Jan. 4.

Sara Jane Bittenbender, 43, from the 800 block of 8th Street, was arrested regarding an incident the Ameris Bank reported cost it $13,963.92. She was the final suspect, among those the Live Oak Police Department identified, to be arrested in the case.

The bank’s branch manager told police Bittenbender and three others were depositing worthless checks into their accounts before withdrawing the same amount from an ATM. The cash was withdrawn before the system could catch the bad checks. 

Isaac Leonard McHenry, from the 800 block of 8th Street, was arrested on July 20. His daughter, Tamarra McHenry, 20, from Madison, was booked into the Suwannee County Jail on Dec. 16. The third person, Felicia Cherie Howard, 27, from the 500 block of Irvin Avenue, was arrested on Dec. 31. 

The LOPD began investigating in early July, when the branch manager reported she had useless checks that were deposited between June 22 and July 6. They were all assigned to a closed account Tamarra McHenry had with the TD Bank in Live Oak.

The Ameris Bank manager identified Tamarra and Isaac McHenry, as well as Bittenbender as the ones making the deposits and withdrawals. 

In August, she told the LOPD a fourth person, Howard, had been caught abusing the worthless checks written by Tamarra McHenry. 

A total of 29 checks were used in the fraud, ranging between $150 and $2,900 in value each, according to the report. 

Tamarra told an LOPD detective her father convinced her the amounts would go unnoticed, the report stated. She said her father assured her they would not get in trouble as long as they paid the money back. 

Both Bittenbender and Isaac McHenry knew the checks had no value, she told the LOPD.

Howard originally did not know, but found out as time went on and continued to use the checks anyway, she told the detective. 

Tamarra also said she got a call from Bittenbender, “warning her of police contact and telling her that they said she stole their bank card and told them she had won the lottery.”

The four have been charged with various crimes, including between them grand theft and scheming to defraud.