(a) As used in this Section, unless the context otherwise requires:
Check means a written, unconditional order to pay a certain sum in money, drawn on a bank, payable on demand, and signed by the drawer. Check, for the purposes of this Section only, also includes a negotiable order of withdrawal and a share draft.
Drawee means the bank 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.
Drawer means a person, either real or fictitious, whose name appears on a check as the primary obligor, whether the actual signature is that of himself or herself or of a person authorized to draw the check on himself or herself.
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.
Issue. A person issues a check when he or she makes, draws, delivers or passes it or causes it to be made, drawn, delivered or passed.
Negotiable order of withdrawal and share draft mean negotiable or transferable instruments drawn on a negotiable order of withdrawal account or a share draft account, as the case may be, for the purpose of making payments to third persons or otherwise.
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, 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 withdrawal by negotiable order of withdrawal or share draft.
(b) Any person, knowing he or she has insufficient funds with the drawee who, with intent to defraud, issues a check for a sum less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) for the payment of services, wages, salary, commissions, labor, rent, money, property or other thing of value, commits fraud by check, which is unlawful.
(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 or she is the payee, holder or bearer of the check.
(d) Any person who opens a checking account, negotiable order of withdrawal account or share draft account using false identification or an assumed name for the purpose of issuing fraudulent checks commits fraud by check, which is unlawful.
(e) If deferred prosecution is ordered, the court as a condition of supervision 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 supervision in addition to other terms and conditions appropriate for the treatment or rehabilitation of the defendant.
(f) A bank, savings and loan association, industrial bank or credit union shall not be civilly or criminally liable for releasing information relating to the drawer's account to a sheriff, deputy sheriff, undersheriff, police officer, district attorney, assistant district attorney, deputy district attorney or authorized investigator for a district attorney investigating or prosecuting a charge under this Section.
(g) 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 or she has no account upon which the check or order is drawn with the bank or other drawee at the time he or she issues the check or order; or
(2) He or she 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. 347 §1, 2008)