Fraud By Check Definition

Fraud By Check – Definitions – Penalties, C.R.S. 18-5-205

(1) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) “Check” means a written, unconditional order to pay a sum certain in money, drawn on a bank, payable on demand, and signed by the drawer. “Check”, for the purposes of this section only, also includes a negotiable order of withdrawal and a share draft.

(b) “Drawee” means the bank upon which a check is drawn or a bank, savings and loan association, or credit union on which a negotiable order of withdrawal or a share draft is drawn.

(c) “Drawer” means a person, either real or fictitious, whose name appears on a check as the primary obligor, whether the actual signature be that of himself or of a person authorized to draw the check on himself.

(d) “Insufficient funds” means a drawer has insufficient funds with the drawee to pay a check when the drawer has no checking account, negotiable order of withdrawal account, or share draft account with the drawee or has funds in such an account with the drawee in an amount less than the amount of the check plus the amount of all other checks outstanding at the time of issuance; and a check dishonored for “no account” shall also be deemed to be dishonored for “insufficient funds”.

(e) “Issue”. A person issues a check when he makes, draws, delivers, or passes it or causes it to be made, drawn, delivered, or passed.

(f) “Negotiable order of withdrawal” and “share draft” mean negotiable or transferable instruments drawn on a negotiable order of withdrawal account or a share draft account, as the case may be, for the purpose of making payments to third persons or otherwise.

(g) “Negotiable order of withdrawal account” means an account in a bank or savings and loan association and “share draft account” means an account in a credit union, on which payment of interest or dividends may be made on a deposit with respect to which the bank or savings and loan association or the credit union, as the case may be, may require the depositor to give notice of an intended withdrawal not less than thirty days before the withdrawal is made, even though in practice such notice is not required and the depositor is allowed to make withdrawal by negotiable order of withdrawal or share draft.

(2) Any person, knowing he has insufficient funds with the drawee, who, with intent to defraud, issues a check for the payment of services, wages, salary, commissions, labor, rent, money, property, or another thing of value, commits fraud by check.

(3) Fraud by check is:

(a) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2007, p. 1693, 8, effective July 1, 2007.)

(a.5) A class 1 petty offense if the fraudulent check was for the sum of less than fifty dollars or if the offender is convicted of fraud by check involving the issuance of two or more checks within a sixty-day period in the state of Colorado totaling less than fifty dollars in the aggregate;

(a.7) A class 3 misdemeanor if the fraudulent check was for the sum of fifty dollars or more but less than three hundred dollars or if the offender is convicted of fraud by check involving the issuance of two or more checks within a sixty-day period in the state of Colorado totaling fifty dollars or more but less than three hundred dollars in the aggregate;

(b) A class 2 misdemeanor if the fraudulent check was for the sum of three hundred dollars or more but less than seven hundred fifty dollars or if the offender is convicted of fraud by check involving the issuance of two or more checks within a sixty-day period in the state of Colorado totaling three hundred dollars or more but less than seven hundred fifty dollars in the aggregate;

(b.5) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2014.)

(c) A class 1 misdemeanor if the fraudulent check was for the sum of seven hundred fifty dollars or more but less than two thousand dollars or if the offender is convicted of fraud by check involving the issuance of two or more checks within a sixty-day period in the state of Colorado totaling seven hundred fifty dollars or more but less than two thousand dollars in the aggregate;

(d) A class 6 felony if the fraudulent check was for the sum of two thousand dollars or more or if the offender is convicted of fraud by check involving the issuance of two or more checks within a sixty-day period in the state of Colorado totaling two thousand dollars or more in the aggregate;

(e) A class 6 felony if the fraudulent check was drawn on an account which did not exist or which has been closed for a period of thirty days or more prior to the issuance of said check.

(4) Any person having acquired rights with respect to a check which is not paid because the drawer has insufficient funds shall have standing to file a complaint under this section, whether or not he is the payee, holder, or bearer of the check.

(5) Any person who opens a checking account, negotiable order of withdrawal account, or share draft account using false identification or an assumed name for the purpose of issuing fraudulent checks commits a class 2 misdemeanor.

(6) If deferred prosecution is ordered, the court as a condition of supervision shall require the defendant to make restitution on all checks issued by the defendant that are unpaid as of the date of commencement of the supervision in addition to other terms and conditions appropriate for the treatment or rehabilitation of the defendant.

(7) A bank, savings and loan association, or credit union is not civilly or criminally liable for releasing information relating to the drawer’s account to a sheriff, deputy sheriff, undersheriff, police officer, agent of the Colorado bureau of investigation, division of gaming investigator, division of lottery investigator, parks and outdoor recreation officer, Colorado wildlife officer, district attorney, assistant district attorney, deputy district attorney, or authorized investigator for a district attorney or the attorney general investigating or prosecuting a charge under this section.

(8) This section does not relieve the prosecution from the necessity of establishing the required culpable mental state. However, for purposes of this section, the issuer’s knowledge of insufficient funds is presumed, except in the case of a postdated check or order, if:

(a) He has no account upon which the check or order is drawn with the bank or other drawee at the time he issues the check or order; or

(b) He has insufficient funds upon deposit with the bank or other drawee to pay the check or order, on presentation within thirty days after issue.

(9) Restitution for offenses described in this section may be collected as a condition of pretrial diversion by a district attorney, an employee of a district attorney’s office, or a person under contract with a district attorney’s office. Such collection is governed by the provisions of article 18.5 of title 16, C.R.S., and is not the collection of a debt.

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