Woman cashes fraudulent checks at four banks across three counties, Horsham police say

Horsham Township Police were dispatched to a local bank this summer, having just missed a fraudulent check writer according to police, who was later that day picked up in Bucks County attempting the same there.

According to the police criminal complaint, Horsham police were dispatched to the FirstTrust Bank at 1 Walnut Grove Drive in Horsham Township on Aug. 30, 2024, for the report of fraud.

Police said that, upon arrival, they met with an employee of the bank who said that, around 10:30 a.m. that day, a person entered the bank and handed her a check for $4,963.17. The woman was identified as Desirae Alexandrea Kristine Clausen, 35, of the 400 block of West 11^th Street, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the check was a FirstTrust Bank check, according to police.

Clausen allegedly provided an Oklahoma ID and a credit card with her name on it as proof of identification, and the teller gave the woman the cash for the check, police said. However, a Fraud and Security Investigator with the bank soon after identified the check as fraudulent. The bank reported the fraud to other area locations.

At 11:06 a.m., Upper Southampton Police Officers were dispatched to a FirstTrust Bank at 361 Second Street Pike in their township for a similarly described woman also identifying as Clausen cashing a “nearly identical fraudulent check,” said police reports. Upper Southampton police were able to stop the woman as she left the bank, arresting her for fraudulent activity, said police.

Clausen faces charges of felony counts of theft by deception or false impression and accessing a device that is counterfeit, altered, or incomplete, in addition to a misdemeanor count of tampering with records. She is held in county jail unable to post a $10,000 monetary, 10 percent cash bail.

She is due to face a preliminary hearing on Dec. 19 before Magisterial District Judge Todd Stephens on Dec. 19 at 11:30 a.m.

According to court documents, Clausen is also charged with forgery and theft by deception or false impression, two felony counts that have been waived for court, in Bucks County courts, stemming from the incident filed Aug. 30, 2024, in Upper Southampton Township.

Additionally, an incident on Aug. 29, 2024, in Bern Township resulted in three felony charges of forgery, accessing a device of counterfeiting, and theft by deception or false impression in Berks County courts. On the same day, forgery and tampering of records charges were also filed in Wyomissing Borough, Berks County.