Is a bounced check for a down payment on a vehicle considered a felony or are the collectors just using scare-tactics to get me to pay up?

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Is a bounced check for a down payment on a vehicle considered a felony or are the collectors just using scare-tactics to get me to pay up?

The car is not on my name, so I don’t own it. I just placed the down payment for a friend. I had a verbal agreement with his friend that he’d give me the money for the check before it went through, but never did and it bounced. Now the collectors have been threatening me relentlessly and aren’t willing to work with me on what I could afford in payments. Will I face such prosecution? Am I looking at prison time? I have a clean criminal record and I’ve never bounced a check in my life.

Asked on June 1, 2012 under Bankruptcy Law, Florida

Answers:

david slater / david p.slater, esq.

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

If you had no intent to decieve, there is no criminal liability, however, you are responsible for the debt.


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