BOARDMAN — A Florida man is getting a second chance after check fraud charges filed against him 10 years ago have been dropped at the victim’s request.

On Tuesday, Michael Lozano, 61, of Stewart. Fla., turned himself in at the Boardman Police Department, where he was charged with one count of receiving stolen property and one count of forgery, both fifth-degree felonies.

Records from Mahoning County Boardman Court show that Wednesday, at the victim’s request, Judge Joseph M. Houser dismissed the charges against Lozano for receiving stolen property and forgery because Lozano has paid him back.

According to Boardman police reports from October and November of 2014, Lozano allegedly stole 10 checks totaling $865 from a man who was allowing him to stay at his Claybourne Avenue home after Lozano’s father passed away. Lozano and his father were the man’s next-door neighbors at the time.

The report states that Lozano told the man he was effectively homeless after his father died, and would “pop in and out of the house” regularly. The man would allow Lozano to sleep, eat and shower there. He was also left there unsupervised on several occasions.

The report states that between Oct. 21 and Nov. 4, 2014, Lozano forged the man’s signature on ten checks ranging in value from $35 to $150. Presumably before discovering the stolen checks, the man paid for a one-way plane ticket for Lozano to Florida and told police he did not hear from him after that.

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