In 2003 I had my purse stolen and did not report it, but I was able to cancel my credit cards, receive new DL and stopped what I thought was my checks in the book that I had not written. An officer came to my door amnd served me with papers on a worthless check. He told me I had 48 hours to get this taken care of. I went to the place of business and took care of this item even though the check was one that was stolen.
My question is will this always be on my report if not when will it be taken off? I am having trouble getting jobs. Did not know about this until 2 weeks ago. Please help!
Thanks

It sounds like you weren't charged (arrested), that you were asked to make restitution and you did without the Court's intervention.

I don't think it will be on any report any place - no arrest, just a request.

I don't know why any of this would interfere with you finding employment.

I don't know why you paid this check if you reported it stolen some time ago - I would think the business that accepted a bad check would be stuck with it.

On the report states a plea of guilty. I never went to court just paid a fine of $100.00 and the cost for the check. They told me that it would be OK and would not show up on my record. I don't know what to do..

Hello r:

I agree with Judy. It SHOULDN'T be on any report anywhere. But, it IS. So, the first thing is to find out exactly what the report says. Ask the person who obtained the report for a copy, or ask them where they got it.

I agree with her further, that you should NEVER have paid the forged check... Having done so, it LOOKS like YOU wrote it, and this item in your background is of your own making.

excon

PS> (edited) I see that you paid a FINE. A fine is what COURTS do, and they only do it if you've been convicted of a crime. Who did you pay the FINE to, if NOT the court?? Apparently, you either plead guilty, or were found guilty by a jury. If the checks were stolen, why didn't you tell the judge?? I don't know. You've really fried yourself!

If you had mentioned that this wasn't simply a Police Officer coming to your door, this was, in fact, an arrest and a guilty plea my advice would have been different. If it's an arrest, of course it's on your record.

I still don't know what you were charged with and why you entered a guilty plea if the check was stolen and forged and you had filed a Police Report to say nothing of paying restitution and paying a fine.

Anyway - how long ago was this and what State?

Are there any other circumstances involved in this?

I just did not want to go to jail for something that I did not do. NEVER have you drivers license number printed on your checks. I know that this sounds crazy but in the end it will be worth it. Make the extra effort in writing a check make them ask to see your ID.

I don't understand this advice - you can't MAKE somebody see your ID when you hand them a check. Your purse was stolen with your checkbook in it and you didn't close the account, you just "cancelled the checks"?

Having a driver license number printed on your check doesn't even guarantee that that's actually your number - ?

I still don't know why you were charged on a forgery and why you would have/could have gone to jail when your purse had been reported stolen and there WAS a Police Report.

I'm sorry and I obviously wasn't there but this makes no sense to me. Obviously the Police and the Court also had a problem believing all of this.

Hello again, r:

You point out the exact reason why the STORE is responsible for accepting a forged check - NOT YOU!!

If you didn't want to be convicted for something you didn't do, then you don't plead guilty. Because pleading guilty tells the whole world that YOU DID DO IT!

excon

I never went to court over this. I never knew that there was a problem until this guy came to my door and I did explain to him this problem. I paid the fines to the store that the person wrote the check to. This was in 2003 in NC.

If you do not have you DL # on your check them they would have to check your ID before excepting the check.

Hello again:

Ok, let's get down to it. You say you never went to court. WHO did you pay the fine to? If you went to court and plead guilty, I'm sure you would remember it. Judges spend quite a few minutes explaining what a guilty plea is. They make absolutely certain that a defendant KNOWS what they're doing. If you went through that, you'd remember it.

Did you pay the cop? Something is missing here... I want to know who you paid the fine to

PS> The drivers license number on your check has NOTHING to do with this - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!

PPS> (edited) In answer to your original question, this item will stay in your background FOREVER!

I did not go to court. The check was made out to Roses Dept. Store they reieved the amount of the check and the fines. I really screwd up paying for this check that I did not write. I will never do this again

Again - something is wrong here. The Department Store could most definitely NOT collect the fine. Yes, you could have made good on the check at the store but the fine is a Court matter, a criminal matter.

Are you sure you aren't talking about paying back on the check and then some sort of restitution, not a fine?

If so I still don't understand why this is part of your criminal record.

I was provided with a report which states
Fines/ Cost: $0.00/$100.00 Paid
Restitution $40.84

And also states that it was waived by clerk

I remember making these two payments at the same time to the store

Hello again, r:

Are you in Canada?

If so, you may not have been to court, and you may have a shot at getting the guilty plea removed.

excon

First serious mistake in paying a debt that is not owed, esp since you would have had a police report on the stolen checks, you merely inform all parties and the charges would have been droped and you would not owe anyone.

This to me actually could even mushroom into something larger if for instant another business comes forward with a larger check from this batch, they sue you and press charges, you have already agreed that you wrote the bad check because you paid this one. So they may use this to prove you did not really have them stolen but did them yourself.

I would address this issue seriously and most likely hire an attorney to try and clear this from my record completely.

Fines/Cost is NOT fines; it's the fee the store is charging for its inconvenience and time - at least in my area. Don't agree to pay it as part of the package and you do get arrested. It's the same as paying the store for its time and expenses if you are arrested for shoplifting.

I don't believe it's a straight fine and the store accepted it on behalf of the Court.