WILLMAR - A Willmar man who was convicted this spring of swindling $89,000 from the Eagle Creek Golf Club where he worked at the time faces new charges in Benton County for allegedly forging two sizable checks last year from a golf course near Brainerd where he had worked.
Phillip Andrew Sam, 33, made a first court appearance Monday in Benton County District Court in Foley on two felony charges of check forgery and offering forged checks.
There was no bail set and he was released following the court appearance.
According to the complaint filed against him, Sam allegedly took two checks from the Golden Eagle Golf Course, located at Fifty Lakes, in Crow Wing County.
He allegedly wrote one check for $4,350 and another for $3,500 and deposited the money in his bank account in February of 2017 at two separate TCF banks, including one in Benton County.
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Surveillance photos from the two TCF banks were compared to the Minnesota Department of Driver and Vehicle Services photograph, which matched Sam.
According to the complaint, a Crow Wing County sheriff's deputy had tried for numerous months to contact Sam but had been unsuccessful.
Sam's next court appearance is set for Nov. 13.
Earlier this year, Sam was convicted in Kandiyohi County of a felony charge of theft by swindle for taking money from the Eagle Creek Golf Club in 2015.
Sam had admitted to taking cash from deposits, using the club's credit card machine to take money and had falsified other transactions.
He told police that he had used the money to feed a gambling habit.
Sam was also charged in a theft-by-swindle case in Mille Lacs County, where he was convicted of a gross misdemeanor. He was accused of stealing the proceeds of a 2014 fundraiser on behalf of his 25-year-old stepbrother, who was suffering from a medical condition.
