Bad Checks Are Still A Thing

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It may seem hard to believe in the internet age, banking, and debit cards, but the Bad Check Unit at the District Attorney’s Office in Lowndes County still stays busy.

The unit works to help businesses in the community recoup money they’ve lost when a customer bounces a check.

The bad check unit is free for victims who bring in a bad check for the office to handle.

The Bad Check Unit at the District Attorney’s Office in Lowndes County sees anywhere from 7 up to 20 bad checks a week.

“These are the cases that we have presented to the grand jury in the last seven months.”

A check is ‘bad’ when the person who writes it doesn’t have enough money in their account to cover it or it’s written on a closed account.

“The one thing that we have noticed quite a bit is that people will go to a gas station and they will get gas, say $10 worth of gas, and then write the check for $30 and then get $20 cash, and then the check is bad.”

Bad Check Unit Director Kaylie Dulaney says there are many businesses and convenience stores who still accept checks.

Even though most people tend to pull out the plastic at the cash register, Food Giant in Columbus, still takes at least 10 to 12 checks a day.

Cashier Casandra Butler says the majority of those are good, but the store still deals with 3 to 4 bad checks a month.

“Our machines actually don’t catch it. It’s just the process of when our managers take the money with the checks to the bank, that’s when we find out.”

Then, the store has to track down the bad check writer to let them know that they have to repay for their groceries, plus an extra $40 returned check fee.

“The victims will send out letters before it ever comes to our office, and then you have like 15 days to respond. If you don’t respond, then it comes to our office, and that’s when we will give you a certain amount of time to respond and if no response and the check is not taken care of, then that’s when we go with the legal action,” says Dulaney.

Dulaney’s unit presents about 6 to 10 bad check cases to the grand jury every court term.

She adds, anything over $100 goes through the court process on a felony false pretense charge.