Police: Mother Accuses Son of Forging Her Checks

A Darien mother has accused her 42-year-old son of stealing more than $25,000 from her by forging her name on checks.

Darien police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of the matter, largely based on the mother's written, sworn statement to police:

Christopher Pinto, who lives in the same home as his mother, 70 Christie Hill Rd., had been doing some secretarial work for his mother at Clearwater Pools in Stamford starting in December 2012.

Earlier this month, the mother asked her bank, Wells Fargo, why she hadn't received her January monthly check for a retirement account she had with the bank.

The bank manager told her that recently there had been several checks withdrawing money from the account, but the mother knew she hadn't made the withdrawals.

The mother found that six checks had withdrawn a total of $7,540 from her retirement account at Wells Fargo Bank.

Some of the checks were made out to an attorney her son had used for legal matters. (According to the Connecticut Judicial Branch website, Christopher Pinto was charged by New Canaan police on Nov. 14 with third-degree larceny, a felony, and is represented in state Superior Court in Norwalk by Attorney John Thygerson.)

Pinto had previously asked his mother for money to pay the lawyer, but she had refused, saying she was out of checks and needed to call her bank. She looked in her purse for more checks later that day and found they were all gone.

The victim also had a bank account at First County Bank. When she looked into it, she found a total of 41 fraudulent checks that had withdrawn $17,870 from that account.

When police spoke with Pinto, he told them it was all a misunderstanding. His mother commonly gave him checks, and he did not forge any, he said.

Police applied for and received an arrest warrant for Pinto, charging him with fifth-degree larceny and six counts of third-degree forgery. He was arrested Jan. 16 at his place of work on Hope Street in Stamford and surrendered without incident.

Pinto was later released on $15,000 bond and is next due to appear Jan. 24 in state Superior Court in Stamford.