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.

In 2003, the Hot Check Division returned more than $568,000 to merchants, exclusive of restitution ordered in criminal hot check cases. In 2004, more than $700,000 was recovered. Some bad check writers who have qualified have been placed on the DA’s Periodic Payment Plan that will recover an additional $309,000 this year.

Filing a Check with the DA

If the check is an NSF check:

• Send a certified 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.
• If the certified letter is returned unclaimed, wait ten (10) days to file the check with the DA’s Office.
• If the certified letter is claimed, wait ten (10) days from the date the certified letter was signed for as shown on the return receipt before filing the check with the DA’s Office.
• When you file the check with the DA’s Office, you must file BOTH the CERTIFIED GREEN CARD RECEIPT AND THE ORIGINAL CHECK along with the Hot Check Crime Report you can download here.

If the check was written on a closed account:

• No notice by certified mail or otherwise is required.
• File the original 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 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 will begin 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

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 Todd Low attended the Tarrant County Junior College Police Academy in December 1992 and received his basic peace officer certification. In February 1993, he began his career as a patrol officer for the City of Bridgeport, TX. He was promoted to patrol Sergeant in 1997. In 1999, he was assigned to the Governor’s Office Task Force as an investigator. Investigator Low joined the Flower Mound Police Department in 2000 as a patrol officer. He was promoted to the motorcycle traffic division in 2001 and later joined the SWAT team. Investigator Low joined the Collin County District Attorney’s Office in December 2004 and serves as the Investigator for County Court at Law No. 5. Besides work, Todd loves to spend time with the most important people in his life, his two children.

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.

Mrs. Watkins began her career with Collin County in 1982 as a clerk in the Election Department. Before leaving the Election Department, she was promoted to Assistant Elections Administrator. In 1989 she transferred to the District Attorney’s Office as receptionist and within the year was moved into the Hot Check Division where she has worked for 15 years. Mrs. Watkins now supervises the day to day activities of the Hot Check Division.