Hot Check Division

1800 N. Graves St., Ste. 200
McKinney, Texas 75069
972-548-3601

The Hot Check Division administers the District Attorney’s Hot Check Loss Prevention Program, conducts investigations into patterns of fraud that may be indicated by worthless check schemes, and offers assistance to those who may be victimized by identity theft.

The Hot Check Division’s primary purpose is to receive complaints of theft arising from the passing of worthless checks and to develop those complaints into prosecutable cases. To help in this effort, the DA’s Office provides information to merchants on the proper procedures they should use in accepting a check for payment for a merchant’s goods, products, or services. When proper procedures are used, the likelihood of catching the offender, obtaining restitution for the merchant, and getting a conviction against the writer of a hot check greatly increases. You can review or download Accepting a Check and Procedure for Taking a Check to assist you in learning those proper procedures. You can download Acrobat Reader here for free.

Since January 1, 2003, the Hot Check Division has returned more than $4,000,000 to merchants, exclusive of restitution ordered in criminal hot check cases.  In 2007, the Hot Check Division filed 1,285 misdemeanor criminal cases and obtained 79 felony indictments against hot check writers.

Filing a Check with the DA

If the check is an NSF check:

• Send a letter to the person who signed the check to the address on the check if you have not enrolled in the DA’s Fast Filing Program. A sample fill-in-the blank letter is available here.
• Wait ten (10) days to file the check with the DA’s Office.
• When you file the check with the DA’s Office, you must file BOTH THE ORIGINAL CHECK, or a substitute check, AND THE AFFIDAVIT OF SERVICE (which you can download here), along with the Hot Check Crime Report, which you can download here.
• You no longer have to send a notice letter to the check writer by certified mail.  You can send the letter by regular mail and then complete the affidavit of service and send it to us.

If the check was written on a closed account:

• No notice by certified mail or otherwise is required.
• File the original check or a substitute check with the DA’s Office along with the Hot Check Crime Report.

Merchants’ Hot Check Fast Filing Program

You can enroll in the DA’s Hot Check Fast Filing Program:

• The Hot Check Division of the DA’s Office will send any required certified notices for you. This is a FREE SERVICE for those enrolled in the program.
• You can enroll in the program by downloading, completing, and sending the Fast Filing Agreement to the Hot Check Division at the address shown on the Agreement. You only have to enroll once.
• When you file the check with the DA’s Office, you must file the ORIGINAL CHECK or Substitute check along with the Hot Check Crime Report you can download here.

Even if the Hot Check Division cannot develop a prosecutable case from a hot check you submit, we will still attempt to collect restitution for you as well as the statutory merchant fee to which you are entitled. If the case is a prosecutable case and is filed in court for prosecution, we will require restitution and the merchant fee be paid as a condition of any plea bargain agreement or, if the court agrees, as a condition of probation if probation is granted to the offender by the court. The District Attorney’s Office will not dismiss a case solely because the offender pays restitution or because the victim wants to drop charges. Once filed, the criminal case will proceed as any other criminal case would.

Substitute Checks

Federal law now allows banks to replace a check with an imaged substitute check. Your bank may use this process, and you would not receive the actual hot check you received and deposited. It is likely that in the near future original processed paper checks will no longer be available to you, but for a fee you can obtain a substitute check from your bank. The imaged checks you receive with you bank statement are not substitute checks. Because of this fee, the Hot Check Division began to collect the maximum merchant fee of $30.00 on all returned checks written in 2004 and later. The collection of this fee should help to offset the cost of obtaining a substitute check.

Substitute checks from your bank are the only exception to the requirement that the Hot Check Division have the original hot check in order to accept it for collection and prosecution. When all restitution and your merchant fee have been collected from the offender, you will receive that money in a restitution check from the Hot Check Division.

Some Things a Merchant Should Know

• You should have a check acceptance policy consistent with the information provided on this website regarding a accepting a check and a procedure for taking a check, and you should follow that policy consistently.
• The DA’s Office cannot accept the following kinds of checks for prosecution:
• Post-dated or “hold” checks
• Checks not presented to a bank for payment within 30 days of receipt
• Checks presented outside Collin County or for services performed outside Collin County
• A check given as a substitute for another
• Checks received in the mail
• Two or more party checks
• Checks altered or forged
• Checks where no goods, products, or services were given in immediate exchange
• Checks given to pay a pre-existing debt
• Drafts, which are an extension of credit
• Checks that are not marked or flagged “account closed” or “NSF”
• Checks where the apparent signer cannot be identified as having actually signed and presented the check
• If you are not sure how to submit a check to the DA’s Office, or if you have any questions about any aspect of accepting a check, call one of the staff of the Hot Check Division. He or she will make sure your question gets an answer.
• Be suspicious of :
• Starter checks
• Temporary, expired, or out-of-state driver’s licenses
• Department of Public Safety ID cards (intended for senior citizens and the disabled)
• Anyone who cannot produce a driver’s license
• Any variation between the information on the check, the ID produced and/or the check writer
• Always keep a copy of everything you send to the DA’s Office, Hot Check Division

Over The Phone Payment

We accept Visa and Master Card only. There is a $5.00 convenience fee for making a payment over the phone. Please call 972-548-3601, 972-548-3602, or 972-548-3632 or the metro number 972-424-1460 with any of those 3 extension numbers.

I received notice from the Hot Check Division that some hot checks I wrote have been filed with the DA. What should I do? You should immediately contact the Hot Check Division, find out how much you owe, and make arrangements to pay the checks, the merchant’s fee, and the DA’s fee. If eligible and if you want to, you may be able to pay by installments. You can pay by mail with a money order or cashier’s check, and if paying in person, you may pay in cash. As you would expect, the Hot Check Division does not accept personal checks. Never send cash in the mail. Do not make restitution to the merchant directly. It will not save you.

Well, I didn’t pay the hot checks I wrote and now I have criminal cases filed against me. What do I do?

A warrant has been issued for your arrest. You are advised to surrender to the county sheriff.

OK, now that I have criminal cases filed against me, what happens after I am arrested? If I pay restitution and all the fees and costs, will the criminal cases be dismissed?

Your criminal case will be handled as any criminal case would be. You should have a lawyer and consider his or her advice. Your attorney will advise you about the procedures in a criminal case. Under no circumstances will your criminal case be dismissed just because you pay restitution, fees and costs. The Hot Check Division is not going to be your banker. Once a criminal case is filed against you, the Hot Check Division only collects your money while the prosecutor assigned to your case seeks your conviction.

Can I get a list from your office of the hot checks I have written?

You can get a list of hot checks you have written that have been filed with the Hot Check Division. You have to appear in person and have a state driver’s license or other official photo identification. We will not release the information to anyone but you or your attorney.

If hot checks I have written are filed with your Hot Check Division, will I have a criminal record if I pay the checks and fees before a criminal case is filed against me?

You will not have a criminal record for the hot checks filed with the Hot Check Division if you pay those checks before a criminal case is filed. However, merely paying the checks you owe will not necessarily prevent a criminal case from being filed. The decision to file a criminal case involves many factors, and no one in the DA’s Office can tell you with certainty that a case will not be filed just because you made restitution, although payment of restitution is a factor in making that decision. All in all, you are likely to be better off if you pay the checks and fees than you would be if you don’t.

Hot Check Division Staff

Felony Investigator Rodney Gene Neal received an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Grayson College in Sherman, Texas, in 1973. Mr. Neal attended the Homer C. Garrison Law Enforcement Academy in Austin, Texas, becoming the youngest Texas State Trooper ever commissioned by the State Texas. He served as a State Trooper for fifteen years, and achieved the rank of Senior Highway Patrol Trooper. Mr. Neal left the Department of Public Safety to accept a position as Criminal Investigator with the Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office in 1988, and is currently the senior felony investigator in the Felony Division. He joined the Special Crimes Division in October 2003.

Investigator Mark Dickerson started his career in Law Enforcement in 1988 with Collin County Sheriffs Office as a Jailer. In 1998 he became a Certified Police Officer with Princeton Police Department working as a Patrolman. He began his career as an Investigator in the Collin County District Attorney's Office in March of 2004. Mr. Dickerson was assigned to the Family Justice Division as an investigator in the Child and Adult Protection section. He began his current assignment in 2008.

Investigator Gary Cochrane started his career in Law Enforcement in 1973 as a Jailer with the Garland Police Department. In 1974 he became a Certified Police Officer with the Plano Police Department working as a Patrolman, then as an Investigator. Mr. Cochrane began his career with the Collin County District Attorney's Office in 1985 as a Criminal Investigator. He is a certified Instructor and a certified Firearms Instructor. He has an associate degree with Abilene Christian University and many credit hours in college and law enforcement training.

Lisa McCurdy received her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M Commerce in 1996. She began work for Collin County in 1997 as a deputy clerk, became civil clerk for County Court at Law No. 4, and joined the Collin County District Attorney's Office in 2001. Ms. McCurdy currently serves as a felony secretary for the Hot Check Division.

Ms. Preskitt started with the District Attorney's office in April 2004. In her tenure here, she has worked as Receptionist, Intake Secretary, Misdemeanor Court Secretary, Special Crimes Secretary and Felony Legal Secretary.