A Creston man is facing charges stemming from a charity calendar scam in Millers Creek, Wilkes County law enforcement authorities said.

According to Capt. Steve Cabe of the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Department, Walbert Keith Famer, 44, is facing one count of obtaining property by false pretense, a felony. Farmer allegedly approached Millers Creek business owner Nicky Brown on Oct. 14 to pick up a check written for $160.

Brown told authorities that Farmer stated that he was picking up a check on behalf of Wilkes Regional Medical Center, Cabe said.

Brown said that he wrote the check because he was contacted from an unknown male who said that he was a doctor at WRMC and told him that ads were being sold for a University of North Carolina football calendar in which proceeds would go toward a fundraiser for children. After speaking with the caller, Brown agreed to buy ad space for the calendar, authorities said.

As January began to draw to a close, Brown began to wonder why the calendars he agreed to buy ad space from had not arrived. Brown was later informed by doctors that they not heard of the charity calendars and that no such sale existed. On Jan. 22, Brown filed a police report with the sheriff’s office after discovering that the check he gave Farmer had cleared.

Farmer was subsequently arrested on Feb. 2 and was later released from the custody of Wilkes County authorities under a $5,000 secured bond. He is scheduled to appear in Wilkes County District Court on March 11.

Cabe said that he did not know if Farmer had attempted to sell any other bogus calendars in the area as it remains the only filed report the sheriff’s office has come across. Sheriff James Williams of the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office said the department had not received any reports of bogus calendar sales in Ashe. Williams also said that Farmer is facing felony probation violations in Ashe.