Reality check...

[Patrick]

On Frasier Grinch, Niles writes a bad check to a man at the mall. In France (and I suspect in America as well) this is considered a criminal offense tantamount to stealing money and it can carry a prison term up to a couple of years (for a first time offender). Only someone from a parallel universe would ever do something like that and expect to get away with it.

[CatNamedRudy]

Yes, it's illegal to knowingly write a bad check. However, Niles could very easily claim he didn't know his account was closed. (even though he did) In such a case, if he were to just pay the amount of the check and the bank penalties it would most likely go no further. This is another case though where Niles does something unethical and he doesn't suffer a nose bleed.

[Patrick]

Yes, it's illegal to knowingly write a bad check. However, Niles could very easily claim he didn't know his account was closed. (even though he did) In such a case, if he were to just pay the amount of the check and the bank penalties it would most likely go no further. This is another case though where Niles does something unethical and he doesn't suffer a nose bleed.

Both Frasier and Niles knew in this case. In Fact that's even why Frasier asked him to write the check. That makes it a criminal conspiracy. Remember that it's not just their word against the man's, there are material proofs that Niles knew that his credit cards were canceled long before they went to the mall. I doubt that they could both lie to a judge and be confident at the same time that the other one will lie the same way. That makes the whole thing extremely improbable, ridiculous even. How could Frasier for example be naive enough to believe that the cynical guy at the mall would just let them get away with it and not call the authorities and a lawyer to bleed them dry over this incident? He could end-up paying that check a few dozen times over... Anyway, that proves that things happen in Frasierland that don't happen anywhere else...

[hansenkd]

It's called the Rule of Funny.

[CatNamedRudy]

Yes, it's illegal to knowingly write a bad check. However, Niles could very easily claim he didn't know his account was closed. (even though he did) In such a case, if he were to just pay the amount of the check and the bank penalties it would most likely go no further. This is another case though where Niles does something unethical and he doesn't suffer a nose bleed.

Both Frasier and Niles knew in this case. In Fact that's even why Frasier asked him to write the check. That makes it a criminal conspiracy. Remember that it's not just their word against the man's, there are material proofs that Niles knew that his credit cards were canceled long before they went to the mall. I doubt that they could both lie to a judge and be confident at the same time that the other one will lie the same way. That makes the whole thing extremely improbable, ridiculous even. How could Frasier for example be naive enough to believe that the cynical guy at the mall would just let them get away with it and not call the authorities and a lawyer to bleed them dry over this incident? He could end-up paying that check a few dozen times over... Anyway, that proves that things happen in Frasierland that don't happen anywhere else...

Yes, I said Niles knew it but there is no way to prove he knew it. How is there proof he knew his checking account was canceled? He knew his credit cards were canceled which he found out that day at Nervosa but so what? That's no proof he knew his checking account had been closed. Trust me. I work with the criminal justice system every single day and I see how things work. Guy cashes check. Check bounces. Niles gets contacted. Niles pays for the check and the bank fees. Problem done.

[Patrick]

...
Yes, I said Niles knew it but there is no way to prove he knew it. How is there proof he knew his checking account was canceled? He knew his credit cards were canceled which he found out that day at Nervosa but so what? That's no proof he knew his checking account had been closed. Trust me. I work with the criminal justice system every single day and I see how things work. Guy cashes check. Check bounces. Niles gets contacted. Niles pays for the check and the bank fees. Problem done.

That's not how it works here. When the check bounces, it means that the bank doesn't pay. Bankers are not, at least here, in the habit of loaning money to delinquent customers.The guy has no other recourse than to go to the police and lodge a complaint at which point the police will start an investigation that will show that Niles knowingly wrote a bad check at the urging of Frasier. I mean, once he knew that his credit cards were cancelled, it was only logic to assume that his bank account was closed as well. They both would have some explaining to do before a judge, at which point they either are bound to bungle up and contradict themselves or to admit the truth which is that they both knowingly wrote a bad check, which as I said is a criminal offense. Just because a criminal is stupid enough to leave and obvious trail behind him doesn't make him any less of a criminal. Niles and Frasier would be in a lot of trouble over this, as if they broke into someone's home and stole the jewelry. Ouch!

[CatNamedRudy]

Here's how it works here: Guy goes to cash check. Guy hands bank teller check, bank teller cashes it on the spot. Hands guy cash for check. Bank sends check to bank where it originated, check bounces. Guy who CASHED the check gets charged for it. Sometimes the bank tries to redeposit the check thinking that this time there will be money in the account (unless it was a closed account which it was in the case of Niles). Then the first bank would contact Niles and he would most likely be afforded the opportunity to pay for the non-sufficient funds check and the bank fees.

If you take a check to your bank and have it cashed right there on the spot, it's not until AFTER you already have the money in hand that your bank would find out the check was bad. I have several people on my caseload for writing bad checks. It's only because they wrote several of them that they weren't able to take care of it before it became criminal.

I'm not saying what Niles did was right. In fact, it was illegal and unethical. All I'm saying is that the chances of him being arrested criminally for it are slim to none as long as he were to take care of it as soon as he was contacted about it.

[Forever Jung]

It's called the Rule of Funny.

THIS!