Forth Worth police earlier this week slapped the cuffs on a 21-year-old music biz wannabe who decided the best way to raise some venture capital was to cash a dodgy cheque for $360bn, NBC 5 reports.

Charles Ray Fuller (pictured), of Crowley, made his move at a branch of Chase Bank with said cheque made out to "Fulla Comp and Entertainment" - the record company he planned to start. However, the wheels quickly came off the plan when the bank unsuprisingly decided to ring the person who'd apparently issued the cheque - one Paula Prettyman - to see if it was legit.

Prettyman, it turned out, was the mother of Fuller's girlfriend, Andrea Greer, and she insisted the master fraudster was "not authorised to take or cash the check".

Cue cop intervention, who arrested Fuller on suspicion of fraud, as well as unlawfully carrying a weapon and marijuana possession since he'd decided to make his play while packing a pistol and a small amount of weed.

Ms Greer said of her boyfriend: "I wouldn't picture him doing something that stupid, I mean, hurting me and my family. I didn't think he'd do this, something this dumb. I think it shocked everybody that knew him."

Greer's grandmother Sharon Laird added to the mass disbelief with: "I said, 'Do what? Is he crazy? We were just in awe."

Laird concluded by noting that if her family did indeed have $360bn, she wouldn't be talking to NBC 5, but rather "somewhere drinking margaritas".

Fuller was released yesterday after posting $3,750 bail. ®

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