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'Refer to Drawer' cheques and criminal law

  • 15-07-2011 10:01pm
    #1
    later12
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,299 ✭✭✭✭


    First of all, this is not a request for legal advice, I already have a solicitor.

    I am aware, through the media, and through my employment, of some cases whereby a debtor who has repeatedly written cheques that were referred to draw (bounced) was charged for having had committed an offense under criminal law for fraudulant or deceptive behaviour.

    Having myself recently engaged in some private work, I had payment sent to me by one client who, on both occasions, wrote a cheque that 'bounced'. Having made contact with some other creditors of this client, I established that it was a common experience. None of the creditors whom I had contacted, had been paid in over three months.

    Myself and one other creditor went to a nearby Garda station to report what we felt might be a crime under the Criminal Justice Act (2001), and informed the Garda on duty that other parties were willing to make statements to the same effect. But the Garda completely refused to look into the case, and repeatedly dismissed it as a civil matter. We assured him that such cases have succeeded under criminal law in the past, but he seemed unconvinced.

    Is there some sort of ambiguity amongst Gardai or other legal professionals in this regard? As it happened, we later met with much more favourable reception at another Garda station, which has agreed to look into the matter from a fraud/ criminal law perspective. But if myself and the other creditors had not known that such cases have succeeded in the past, we would most likely simply have taken the first Garda's word for it that this was solely a civil case.

    So basically, is there a common perception that repeatedly writing cheques which cannot be honoured is inevitably a civil, and not a criminal offence under Irish law? I really feel that it should be clarified to both payers and payees that there is recourse to criminal legislation in some such cases.


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