Newport man sentenced to 7 years for writing more than $200,000 in bad checks

A Newport Beach man was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to intentionally writing more than $200,000 worth of bad checks.

Richard Scott Bloustine also will have to pay restitution to his victims and a $444,000 fine as part of his sentence, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Bloustine, 50, admitted that he wrote checks for high-priced items such as dental work and a down payment on a car knowing he didn’t have funds to cover the purchases, according to the district attorney’s office.

During a hearing in Orange County Superior Court, Bloustine pleaded guilty to five felony counts of grand theft, 10 felony counts of writing a check for non-sufficient funds, one felony count of unlawful taking of a vehicle and a variety of sentencing enhancements.

Bloustine has at least a dozen fraud-related misdemeanor or felony convictions across the country, according to Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Labreche.

“I don’t think he’s had an honest day’s work in his life,” Labreche said.

Typically, Labreche said, Bloustine would receive a service and then not pay for it.

In 2014, Bloustine knowingly bounced an $80,000 check for dental work he got at the Center for Reconstructive Dentistry in Newport Beach, according to prosecutors.

In November that year, he wrote a $32,000 check to lease a Newport Beach home and then a $13,000 check to furnish the property, according to prosecutors, who said Bloustine knew he didn’t have the money to cover either.

Less than a month later, Bloustine wrote a bad check at a Laguna Beach car dealership for a $15,000 down payment on a Mercedes-Benz, prosecutors said.

When the businesses never received proper payment, they contacted police. Newport Beach police arrested Bloustine on July 22, according to jail records.

After his arrest, prosecutors said, authorities discovered that Bloustine had defrauded another dental office by writing a bad check for $80,000.