(Stillwater, Okla.) – An ex-convict with a criminal record in six counties was charged Monday with giving an $1,800 bogus check to buy a Jeep from a couple at the Country Horizon RV park in rural Ripley.
Due to his criminal record, Harry Benjamin Joslin, 43, who listed a post office box in the Pushmataha County community of Rattan as his address, could be incarcerated for six years to life if convicted of obtaining merchandise by a bogus check after prior felony convictions.
Joslin, who has not yet been arrested, went to a woman’s residence at the RV park on Oct. 7 to look at a 2002 Jeep that she and her boyfriend were selling, according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Bobby Miller.
Joslin wrote an $1,800 check on a Wells Fargo Bank account to the woman’s boyfriend, who deposited it at his bank in Stroud where the check was sent back for insufficient funds, the affidavit alleged. The woman’s boyfriend “did retain the title until the check cleared his bank,” the affidavit said.
The woman said she texted Joslin “about the check not clearing the bank and he responded that it’s a bank error and will be fixed,” the affidavit alleged.
“Mr. Joslin texted several times apologizing for the mix-up and stating he would get it worked out. Mr. Joslin then stated that he could send the money by Western Union and (the woman) agreed and he was told to send it to the Cushing Walmart,” the affidavit alleged.
The couple “have still not received any money for the Jeep and Mr. Joslin has possession of it. They have asked Mr. Joslin to return the Jeep until he can pay for it, and Joslin had advised them that he has now spent money fixing it up,” the affidavit alleged.
The woman “did some checking on Harry Joslin and learned that he was recently in prison for bogus checks,” the affidavit said.
When the deputy showed her Joslin’s photo on the state Department of Corrections website and asked her if he was the same Harry Joslin that wrote the check, she said yes, the affidavit alleged.
According to court records and the state Department of Corrections, Joslin was released from prison eight months ago and had prior felony convictions for:
* two counts of uttering a forged instrument in Yukon in Canadian County in 2015, for which he was given an eight-year prison term in 2016 followed by seven years of probation and served about two years’ incarceration prior to his release in March of this year;
* methamphetamine possession in Oklahoma City in Oklahoma County in 2010, for which he was given an eight-year prison term in 2011 and served about two and one-half years prior to his release in December 2013;
* uttering two or more bogus checks in Choctaw County in 2004, for which he was placed on three years’ probation in 2009 except 40 days in jail;
* attempt to obtain property by false pretense after prior felony convictions in Norman in Cleveland County in 2008, for which he was placed on 10 years’ probation in 2009;
* second-degree forgery in Wynnewood in Garvin County in 1995, for which he was placed on three years’ probation in 1996;
* grand larceny in Pushmataha County in 2001, for which he was given a five-year prison term and served about half before his parole in 2004;
* uttering forged instruments in Pushmataha County in 2001, for which he was given a concurrent five-year prison term and served about half before his parole in 2004;
* uttering two or more bogus checks in McCurtain County in 1994, for which he was originally placed on probation that was revoked in 2001 to four years, two months and 20 days and served about half.
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