| By the way - writing a check for $500 and having it bounce is NOT a felony. Matter of fact, I do believe even if you wrote a check for a million bucks and it was returned for insufficient funds, it is still a civil matter, not a crime. BUT...if you write a check to someone on an account you know to be closed, then it is a crime. I think. Check laws are very strange sometimes.
I believe what you are thinking is that a theft of $500 is (used to be) a felony. That has now increased to $1000 - same with felony criminal damage. In most cases, crimes have to show intent - like with a bad check, if someone had money in their account and wrote a check that bounced, they still have the argument that the check was written in good faith in hopes the money would be there. If it is written on a closed account, or one that closed immediately after the check was written, it show an intent to deceive the bearer of the check. |