https://nypost.com/2020/07/22/man-fa...ives-him-away/

A Long Island car thief tried to fake his own demise to avoid jail ' but a glaring typo on the bogus death certificate exposed the fraud, authorities said.

Robert Berger, 25, of Huntington, was arraigned Tuesday by video on charges of offering a false instrument for filing for which he faces a maximum of four years. He pleaded not guilty.

'Typos and formatting errors gave up what we allege is a forged death certificate that this defendant used to avoid accountability for other crimes,' said Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas in a statement.

'Submitting fake documents to prosecutors is always a bad idea, and while he'd have been caught regardless, failure to use spell check made this alleged fraud especially glaring.'

Last year, on Oct. 22, the day that Berger was supposed to be sentenced to up to one year in jail for stealing a Lexus and a pickup truck in two unrelated felony cases, his lawyer informed the court that he had died.

Attorney Meir Moza later presented a New Jersey death certificate indicating that Berger had died of suicide by suffocation. The document had been given to him by Berger's fianc', officials said.

But prosecutors immediately noticed that registry was misspelled as 'Regsitry' and the font type and size were inconsistent. The document was also submitted to the Suffolk County Attorney's Office, where Berger had another pending case.

Moza later told the court that Berger had engaged in a conspiracy and tried to use his law firm to further it. He dropped the fraudster as a client.

'I worked very hard to get him good plea deals,' Moza said. 'And he really screwed everything up by doing what he did and taking advantage of everybody that cooperated to help him, including myself.'

Authorities said Berger fled to Pennsylvania. Investigators soon located him at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, where he was being held on charges that included providing a false identity to law enforcement.

He was extradited to Nassau County and is being held without bail.

'He really needs to work on himself,' Moza said.