Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Can I be prosecuted for theft or fraud?

A friend asked me if I would deposit a check for her since she didn't have a checking account. It was for a loan from a nationally known lender sent to her pre approved by them (loan Company). I did, and after 5 days, I withdrew the money and gave it to her. Now, a year later, I get a call from the loan company, and they say the are going to prosecute me for theft and check fraud because they can't find her and no payments have been made on the loan and I deposited it. . Can they do this? It's not my fault they can't find her. I don't know where she moved to either. Can I be prosecuted for check fraud?


Asked on 11/23/01, 6:52 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Victor Hobbs Victor E. Hobbs

Re: Can I be prosecuted for theft or fraud?

Of course you can be prosecuted and convicted too. However if we were to deal with the odds of what is most likely to happen we would not come to this conclusion. So here is some professional estimates of what has and is likely to happen. The note signed by the borrower has been turned over to a collection agency. They are not going to spend a lot of money trying to collect on the note. However, a few telephone calls and threats (no one ever said you have to be smart to work for a collection agency) that might motivate you to give information on where the former friend went is their present tactics.

I don't think you'll be criminally prosecuted nor do I think you would ever be convicted. However, you might have more contact with this collection agency. So you may want to find out what your rights are when it comes to credit reporting and collection efforts. I don't have a ready reference on those rights at this time. So do a little web surfing to find them. They'll be on a California or Federal Government web site.

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Answered on 11/23/01, 10:28 am


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