RALEIGH — Police have charged a 23-year-old man with washing out small denomination bills and then reprinting the items as counterfeit $50 bills that he used to purchase items at Walmart stores in Wake Forest and Rocky Mount.

Wake Forest police have charged Lamel Rayfield Truesdale, of 1607 Burgundy Road in Raleigh, with uttering a forged instrument, according to an arrest warrant filed Wednesday at the Wake County Magistrate’s Office.

Rocky Mount police have also charged Truesdale with one felony count each of obtaining property by false pretenses, possession of a counterfeit instrument and uttering forged instrument.

Wake Forest investigators have accused Truesdale of walking into the store June 7 and using 18 of the bogus $50 to purchase unspecified items, court records show.

Rocky Mount police say that on June 8, Truesdale took 18 more of the washed out, reprinted cash to purchase an iPad at a Walmart store on Bevenue Road.

Truesdale is in custody at the Wake County jail, his bail set at $30,000.