SALEM – An East Boston man who admitted passing two bad checks at the North Shore Mall and another at a car wash on Andover Street in Peabody during a one-day crime spree in 2009 received 20 months in jail.Steven G. Jil, 35, who last lived at 184 Paris St. in East Boston, changed his innocent plea to guilty Friday afternoon to two counts of larceny by check under $250 as well as a single count of larceny by check over $250 before Superior Court Judge Timothy Q. Feeley.Jil was sentenced to serve the 20-months punishment in the House of Corrections.The charges arise out of two incidents at the North Shore Mall in Peabody on April 10, 2009 when he passed two bad checks to a jewelry business at the mall.Jil provided his driver’s license as identification at the Jeweler’s Work Bench for merchandise for about $900 and another check in the amount of $100 for a second item.That same day he then went to Maddy’s Car Wash located on Andover Street, had his car washed and bought car wash tickets, paying for all the work and tickets with a check for $105.In all three cases, the checks were drawn on an account which had insufficient funds and was closed.Investigators were able to track down Jil from his driver’s license he provided to the Jeweler’s Work Bench, which the sales clerk had jotted down on the checks he provided. In addition authorities said the sales clerk was able to identify him through a photo array shown to him.Assistant District Attorney Karen Hopwood argued for a state prison term rather than a jail sentence, proposing up to three years in state prison with probation while pointing out to the judge Jil’s past criminal record involving similar crimes.Defense lawyer Christopher Norris pleaded for the 20 months in jail, which the judge agreed to impose, saying his client at the time had a drug dependency.The sentence imposed will coincide with a jail term Jil is currently serving on similar crimes out of Westborough which is expected to wrap up in October of 2011. Jil, however, will still have an additional six months more to serve on the sentence imposed by Feeley.Then Jil will be sent to New Hampshire where he still has a 6-to-12-year prison term hanging over his head for similar crimes, but that will not commence until he finishes his punishments in Massachusetts.Jil was indicted by an Essex County grand jury last January and has been held at the Middleton Jail without bail since being arraigned.