Someone copied signatures of Mount Vernon officials to forge thousands of dollars in fake checks.

The mayor, City Council and Comptroller Maureen Walker say that they discovered someone cashed $5,000 worth of fake checks last month.

Walker says 15 bad checks in total were written after someone stole her and Mayor Richard Thomas' signature, drafted the checks and then cashed them at a check-cashing store in Brooklyn last month.

The new mayor and comptroller have been at odds for weeks, with the latest controversy stemming from a dispute last month about how the mayor is handling city checks he's given by the comptroller's office to sign.

Members of the City Council say they are going to change the city's charter to streamline the check processing system, and hopefully make it harder for check fraud to happen again.