A little Advice

Last week, I let a friend cash a check with me at my bank (his bank is over an hour away) which is no big deal, he's been my friend for years and I'd trust him with my life. Fast forward to today, I get online to check my bank statement and I am almost in the negative. I notice 2 charge back fees so i call the bank to see what the deal is. It turns out, that the two checks my friend cashed, had bounced, so the bank charged my account for the amount of the bad checks. At this point, im pretty mad about the whole thing. I give my friend a call and tell him what the deal is, so he calls the guy who had written him the checks. No answer.

Is there anything I can do to try and get my money back? I want to be as civilized as possible, even though I'm probably dealing with some low-life scumbag. If it was just a few bucks, i probably wouldn't be that upset, but its almost 300 dollars, and I'm a college student, so cash isn't exactly falling out of my pockets. My friend offered to pay up, but i want to make sure he gets his money too. Its pretty sickening, i was just trying to help my friend out and i feel like I'm getting screwed for it.