Tavernier man arrested for attempting to steal money from local bank

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Tavernier – A Tavernier man was arrested Tuesday after heattempted to deposit three fraudulent checks into his bank account at CommunityBank. The bank discovered the crime after finding out the Citibank account thechecks were written on was not a real account.
21 year old Cole Peacock attempted to defraud Community bankby depositing the three checks for a total of $22,000.00. When Deputy MikeSielicki arrived, Peacock was still at the bank. He claimed the checks werefrom a company called Data Point Systems, located at 234 Azalea Street inTavernier. That address is also Peacock’s home address. He then later admittedto ordering the checks on line, but said he didn’t know they were written on acounterfeit account.
During the course of an investigation by Sheriff’s DetectiveFrancisco Gaete, Peacock claimed to have accessed the Sheriff’s Office securenetwork. He also claimed to have accessed the DAVID system, a secure vehicleidentification system belonging to the State of Florida.
Information Systems specialists at the Sheriff’s Office saythey have no evidence Peacock did access the secure part of the Sheriff’sOffice network. When detectives asked Peacock to show them how he did it, hewas unable to access the Sheriff’s Office computer network at that time and, infact, was only able to access portions of the Sheriff’s Office web site whichis publicly accessible and could not penetrate the network farther than that.
His computer and computer equipment was seized for furtherinvestigation.
Detectives did gain information which indicates he may havehad access to a Sheriff’s Office laptop computer several years ago. At thattime, a Sheriff’s Office employee who has since retired asked Peacock to helphim copy two non-work related files off the computer. There is no indication hegained access at that time to the MCSO secure network, however while Peacockwas helping to copy the files, he had access to the computer’s hard drive andmay have gained access to an authentication certificate for the DAVID system.Investigations are underway to see if he was able to use that certificate togain access to the secure DAVID network using the stolen certificate.
Peacock was arrested. He was charged with grand theft,fraud, three counts uttering a forged instrument and accessing a computer without the authority to do so.
Investigations are continuing.