Under section 313(A) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) as amended, it is an offence punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment of up to five (5) years for any person to issue a dud cheque. Yet the Bank of Ghana has noted with great alarm the high issuance of dud cheques by some customers of banks and specialized deposit taking institutions (SDTI).

In 2005, the Central Bank introduced certain sanctions with the hope of curbing the practice. yet since then, people have continued to issue dud cheques, unperturbed. This has had grave consequences on the acceptance of cheques by many institutions. In light of this, Bank of Ghana has revised its sanctioning regime to discourage the malpractice.

Hence forth, persons who issue dud cheques would face a number of increased sanctions. These include a warning for first timers, surveillance for several years, among others. A person caught could even lose the right to own or issue any cheques at all for prolonged periods. And all these are in addition to the fine or jail time a person may face under the criminal law

Find the full Bank of Ghana Notice on the sanctions for the issuance of dud cheques here

Sanctions

Source: bog.gov.gh