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Campbellton - A 26-year-old man who was part of a bad cheque cashing scheme last summer was handed a fine and ordered to pay restitution when he appeared in Campbellton Provincial Court.

Jean Marc Plourde pleaded guilty to fraud and uttering a forged document after having been arrested for cashing a bad cheque at the Atholville Superstore May 10, 2007.

Crown Prosecutor Rene Dumaresq told Judge Steven Hutchinson Feb. 29 that Plourde was one of three men to cash a cheque from the same company at the store around the same time. The company that had issued the cheques had closed its account in December 2006 and was having the money returned to it in exchange for a fee. The company's owner, according to Dumaresq, was using the money, about $6,000, for drugs.

Plourde had been fined for a similar offence last year in Edmundston and had appeared in St. Quentin Provincial Court the day before (Feb. 28) where he was sentenced to house arrest after being found guilty following a drug bust.

Hutchinson said that had the Crown and defence not put forward a joint sentencing recommendation, he would have sent Plourde to jail.

He fined Plourde $345, banned him from the Superstore and placed him on 18 months supervised probation. He also ordered Plourde to pay $380 in restitution to the Superstore.