Peabody Man Charged In Norwood Bad Check Scheme: Police

NORWOOD, MA — A Peabody man was arrested in connection to a scheme involving bad checks, police said.

Dennis B. Ferrullo, 47, was charged with four counts of check larceny, four counts of uttering a false check, and furnishing a false name at booking. He also had five active warrants for various larceny and check forgery charges, according to the Norwood Police Department.;

Police say Ferullo passed a series of fraudulent checks from Aug. 9 to 20 to purchase copper wire, which he would then scrap for money to support his heroin addiction.

Police first became aware of the suspect after they responded to a call of Ferullo passing a bad check, as he had done successfully on several prior occasions. The officers responded and Ferullo identified himself as Mark Ferullo with a date of birth which was not his own. Officer Derek Wennerstrand, prior to this incident, had initiated an investigation into Ferullo committing the same crime at a second location, and identified the defendant at booking as Dennis B. Ferullo, not Mark as he had represented to the officers, according to a Norwood Police statement.

An investigation revealed that this alleged scheme locally involved the theft of approximately $8,000 in copper wire by Ferullo. Police say Ferullo committed similar thefts in several North Shore communities in the amount in excess of $10,000 and they forwarded the information to those communities.

Image via Norwood Police Department