PEABODY — After some 45 larceny convictions, Steven Jil, one might think, would have learned how to avoid getting caught.
But Jil, 35, of East Boston, is back behind bars. His latest conviction came yesterday, for a series of bad checks passed in Peabody in April 2009.
He was caught because, in passing those bad checks, he also handed over his own driver's license as identification — and employees of one business wrote down the license number on the checks.
That enabled Peabody police to identify Jil quickly when the checks were returned for insufficient funds, prosecutor Karen Hopwood said. A store employee confirmed that the man in the driver's license photo was the man who had purchased nearly $1,000 worth of jewelry from the Jeweler's Workbench kiosk at the Northshore Mall on April 10, using two checks that were returned by the bank.
Jil also pleaded guilty yesterday in Salem Superior Court to charges that he passed another bad check that day, for $105, at Maddy's Car Wash, just down the road from the mall on Route 114. Jil had gotten his car washed and purchased a book of coupons for future washes.
He was indicted earlier this year, largely as a result of his long prior record involving similar crimes all over Massachusetts. Because of that record, Hopwood, the prosecutor, sought a state prison term of at least 21/2 to three years.
Judge Timothy Feeley instead imposed a 20-month house of correction term, which will overlap with a sentence Jil is now serving in Middlesex County.
After he completes that sentence, however, he's going to New Hampshire, where his lawyer, Christopher Norris, told the judge that Jil will be serving six to 12 years in prison for crimes in that state.
Jil was charged in May 2009 with passing bad checks at a Costco in Nashua, N.H., according to a press release announcing his arrest. He was also charged there with being a fugitive from justice because police there learned of the Massachusetts cases.
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