11.07.017 Fraud by check.
A. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. “Check” means a written, unconditional order to pay a sum certain in money, drawn on a bank or other financial institution payable on demand, and signed by the drawer.
“Check,” for the purposes of this section only, also includes a negotiable order or withdrawal and a share draft.
2. “Drawee” means the bank or other financial institution upon which a check is drawn or a bank, savings and loan association, industrial bank, or credit union on which a negotiable order of withdrawal or a share draft is drawn.
3. “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.
4. “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.
5. Issue. A person issues a check when he makes, draws, delivers, or passes it or causes it to be made, drawn, delivered, or passed.
6. “Negotiable order or withdrawal” and “share draft” mean negotiable or transferable instruments drawn on an account, as the case may be, for the purpose of making payments to third parties or otherwise.
7. “Negotiable order of withdrawal account” means an account in a bank, savings and loan association, or industrial bank, 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, savings and loan association, or industrial bank or credit union, as the case may be, may require the depositor to give notice of an intended withdrawal not less than thirty (30) days before the withdrawal is made, even though in practice such notice is not required and the depositor is allowed to make withdrawals by negotiable order of withdrawal or share draft.
B. Any person, knowing he has insufficient funds with the drawee, who, with intent to defraud, issues a check in the sum of less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) for the payment of services, wages, salary, commission, labor, rent, money, property, or other thing of value, commits the Class B municipal offense of fraud by check.
C. 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.
D. Any person who opens a checking account, negotiable order withdrawal account or share draft account using false identification or an assumed name for the purposes of issuing fraudulent checks commits a Class A municipal offense.
E. If a deferred prosecution or judgment and sentence is ordered, the Court as a condition of probation may require the defendant to make restitution on all checks issued by the defendant which are unpaid as of the date of commencement of the probation in addition to other terms and conditions appropriate for the treatment or rehabilitation of the defendant.
F. 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:
1. He has no account upon which the check or order is drawn with the bank or other drawee at the time he issued the check or order; or
2. He has insufficient funds upon deposit with the bank or other drawee to pay the check or order, on presentation within thirty (30) days after issue. (Ord. 472 §5, 2003; Amended Ord. 713 §4, 2017)