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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    14

    Default Is it Theft to Stop Payment on a Check After Services are Received

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: New York

    I was approached by an individual who told me that he was looking for specific information. I told her that I did not have the information. She called again, and asked if I could find it for her. After several calls, I agreed, and a price of $3000 was agreed to.

    After I researched the information and obtained the desired results, a meeting was conducted, where she gave me a check for $3000 and took the documentation from my research. Later, I found that there was a stop payment on the check. I contacted police, who said that they consider bad checks a civil matter. I pointed out that this was not a bad check, it was a stop payment, and therefore a willful act to defraud me of my labor of performing the research.

    From study, I believe that a civil action may well be successful. I also learned out that she worked in concert with someone else who unsuccessfully tried to get the same information. Specifically, I believe she was in collusion with that person, and that they two of them conspired to defraud me of my effort.

    I believe that in addition to making me whole, this / these people should also answer to criminal charges, however the DA is said to say that he will not pursue felony charges where a bad check is involved. I believe this is a larceny crime. Either way the DA has indicated that given the stature of the individuals, he will not prosecute.

    So my question is, I thought that a DA was required to prosecute all cognizable crimes. Would a criminal complaint from me, sworn to the local court make this a cognizable crime? Additionally, other than through the DA, is there any way to have this matter heard by the Grand Jury?

    Thank you for your thoughts.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    Somewhere near Canada
    Posts
    35,894

    Default Re: Service Performed, Check Issued and Results Delivered, then Stop Payment

    Reading this might be a good place to start:

    http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article190.htm

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    14

    Default Re: Service Performed, Check Issued and Results Delivered, then Stop Payment

    I did read that, and there is where I came to the conclusion that a bad check was not written. Rather I am looking at 155 which is larceny, which appears to fit better. It also means that what was done is a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    2,344

    Default Re: Service Performed, Check Issued and Results Delivered, then Stop Payment

    You are not going to be successful in getting a prosecutor to bring charges for theft of services. These cases involve "he said, she said" to a degree that simply does not warrant expending prosecutorial resources on them. Prosecutors have much bigger fish to fry, and you have an adequate remedy for the problem in the eyes of the law through the civil courts.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Behind a Desk
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    98,846

    Default Re: Service Performed, Check Issued and Results Delivered, then Stop Payment

    Quote Quoting firehunter
    View Post
    I pointed out that this was not a bad check, it was a stop payment, and therefore a willful act to defraud me of my labor of performing the research.
    Or it could simply be that she found your service to be inadequate and didn't want to pay for it. What did she say when you called her to find out why she stopped payment?
    Quote Quoting firehunter
    From study, I believe that a civil action may well be successful. I also learned out that she worked in concert with someone else who unsuccessfully tried to get the same information. Specifically, I believe she was in collusion with that person, and that they two of them conspired to defraud me of my effort.
    Speculation is not evidence, and is thus useless in court.
    Quote Quoting Bubba Jimmy
    View Post
    You are not going to be successful in getting a prosecutor to bring charges for theft of services. These cases involve "he said, she said" to a degree that simply does not warrant expending prosecutorial resources on them.
    It's more than that -- so far we've been presented with no actual facts that would indicate that a crime occurred. Nonpayment for services is not, of itself, a crime. Stopping payment for services once you discover them to be inadequate (even if your impression is unfair) is not, of itself, a crime.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    14

    Default Re: Service Performed, Check Issued and Results Delivered, then Stop Payment

    She never complained that the services were inadequate. When I left a voicemail after the check was not honored by the bank, there was no response. Furthermore, she inspected the results before writing me a check.

    Later, another person, who had first tried to get the same research done, contacted me again, and said that she had "given" him the results which I "gave" her in a voicemail, which I would consider evidence of collusion. I have not studied the rules of evidence adequately, to determine how defensible this assertion might be.

    At least at this point, there is no assertion, made to me, that my services were unsatisfactory. Rather I would argue that after inspection, the buyer's determination was made that the results were adequate, and therefore that they were worth $3000. Until they stole the payment.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    7,056

    Default Re: Service Performed, Check Issued and Results Delivered, then Stop Payment

    I served on a County Grand Jury for I want to forget how long. And in that time, we heard several cases where this exact thing happened. There is a big difference between writing a bad check and stopping payment of a check after goods or services are rendered.

    Writing a check when you know you can't cover it is actually a crime. You are supposed to have the funds in the bank whenever you write a check. But prosecutors don't often pursue them. But writing a check, then obtaining goods or services and stopping payment is entirely a different issue.

    However nebulas it may sound this was the instructions by one prosecutor in the Grand Jury. A guy is walking home from work and spot a TV in a store window that he decides to buy. He knows that he does not have the funds to cover a check to buy but he has his paycheck that he intends to deposit in the bank that will produce sufficient funds to cover it. So he buys the TV and writes the check knowing that at the time he did not have the funds in the bank. Is that check fraud? Well, according to the laws of NJ it is. Check writing is a debit process and writing a check when you know you don't have the funds is a crime. Even though he intend to cover the check before it will clear. I guess that when a prosecutor wants to get you in a grand jury they get you.

    But when someone writes a check and receives good or services and then stops payment, it is a fraud and a theft. It has nothing to do with writing bad checks.

    To the OP, if you can't get your local prosecutor to follow through you can do it yourself. Most people do know that they can file for their own probable cause hearing and of course, depending on their states laws. It's called "Certification in Support of Probable Cause."

    You go to your local jurisdiction court and file the affidavit. If you do your homework and research the laws and site them in the affidavit, you may get results. What happens next is that it is reviewed by the local prosecutor and if you (like I said did your homework) they must schedule it before a Judge to see it there is probable cause. There would be a hearing before a local judge and if they fined probable cause according to the law, it will go before a grand jury. Don't be in a hurry because it takes months. But it could be your answer. And you don't know what the grand jury will find.

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