I have a subcontractor who acts as a salesman for our tree service company. Our working relationship is that he is paid upon collection of checks (there is no written agreement, this is just how we've released funds to him for our 1+ year of working together).

He has somehow gotten a hold of one of our signed checks and written himself the amount he is presuming he's owed of $8300. (To clarify, we had a blank check with our signature. He wrote out his name, the amount, the date himself. I think he may have previously had it long ago or recently took it. We have trusted him with blank checks in the past but we never let any go unaccounted for.)

In this case, we have not collected jobs that he has sold that he is claiming he is owed for. Also this does not account for any deductions and expenses that he has incurred, so in reality he is owed approximately $1500 less than the $8300 he's claiming. Also it's worth nothing that the subcontractor typically is always involved in receiving collections from jobs and is aware of the status of them. At this point he is upset because the latest jobs are insurance claims that our office has been handling, and he is claiming we have collected payment on the jobs he has earned commission on but are withholding (wrong, we're actually broke).

Before this incident occurred, he received an update about the status of collecting payment on his jobs. Now that he's written himself a check he's refusing communication to us. To clarify, he cashed the check, not deposited it, so there's no way for the bank to reverse it.

I would like to file criminal charges against him to force him to return the check or to at least settle part of it. What would be the best course of action?