David Hansen (OTCDF)
Fergus Falls, MN – A man from Elbow Lake is facing a felony charge of Issuing a Dishonored Check to Otter Tail County Court.
According to court documents, 48-year-old David Alex Hansen was convicted of theft in Otter Tail County and was sentenced to pay restitution in the amount of $18,877.23. The money would be put in a pre-closure account by the Otter Tail County Court Administration. Hansen made the payment by issuing a check on December 29, 2023.
When the administration received the check, they informed Hansen that the spelled out amount on the check was different from the numerical amount and the amount that he owed. Hansen then pulled out a single blank check that had been folded up in his pocket and wrote out the correct amount and listed in the memo that it was for restitution. On January 9th, 2024, the check was returned with the notation “no account found.”
An Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Detective contacted the bank that the account was associated with and a representative and confirmed that the account had been closed on October 5th, 2020 and the reason the check was returned as “no account found” was because of how long ago the account was closed.
When confronted about the check by the detective, Hansen confirmed that he wrote the check and claimed that he was unaware the account was closed, as he had not written any recent checks from that account. However, when the detective contacted other members of law enforcement with pending investigations, it was discovered that Hansen had written ten additional, separate checks from the same closed account.
Hansen made his first court appearance Monday morning (October 14th).