Brandon Michael Mathis
WINNSBORO – A Columbia man who worked as a teller for the Wells Fargo bank on N. Congress Street in Winnsboro was arrested last week following an investigation by the Winnsboro Department of Public Safety (WDPS) into a rash of fraudulent transactions.
Brandon Michael Mathis, 23, of Angus Drive in Columbia, was arrested April 5 and charged with four counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, the Department said, in cases that date back as far as last September and involving mostly senior citizens. The reports began cropping up in February, beginning with a 75-year-old Blackstock man who told investigators on Feb. 6 that he had cashed a check for $268.80 at the drive-thru on Jan. 21 and later found his account had been tapped for $4,286.80. On Feb. 12, a 35-year-old Winnsboro man reported that he had withdrawn $1,525 from his account on Jan. 9, but later discovered his account had been hit for an additional $110. On March 4, an 88-year-old Winnsboro woman told police that her account had been debited for an additional $2,000 after she made a $900 withdrawal on Jan. 13. A 54-year-old Winnsboro woman found her account drained of $11,200 between September 2013 and March 2014.
Mathis was released on an $8,000 personal recognizance bond the same day he was arrested. He has since been terminated from Wells Fargo, although a Wells Fargo spokesperson would not say when nor would he say how long Mathis had been employed there.
