MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Former welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga was arrested for the second time in a week on fraud charges, this time accused of writing bad checks.

He was first arrested Tuesday at the Managua airport as he boarded a plane for Miami. He was jailed in Leon, 90 kilometres from Managua, on charges he never paid a local car dealer US$56,000 for four cars.

Local prosecutors dismissed the case as a civil matter, and he was to be released. But before he was set free, he was arrested again Thursday and jailed, National Police spokeswoman Martha Torres said Friday. In the second case, three people have accused Mayorga of writing bad checks worth $87,000.

Mayorga's brother, Roberto, said the first case wasn't fraud but "a debt that Ricardo is paying." The boxer's lawyer, Lester Buzano, said the second case isn't "a crime, but a civil matter. No one is jailed for debt."

This wasn't the first time Mayorga has had legal problems in his home country.

In 2004, the Supreme Court cleared the boxer of charges he raped a 22-year-old woman at a Managua hotel. Mayorga acknowledged having sex with the woman but said it was consensual.

The woman appealed and won an order for a retrial after a lower court ruled there were irregularities in the case. The Supreme Court disagreed and blocked the retrial.