One of the newer crimes on the criminal justice timeline is identify theft, or as it is entitled in the Utah criminal code, identity fraud. It may not be that identity theft is really that new of an occurrence as much as its more often noticed and prosecuted. As the world gets smaller with advances in technology it is more obvious when someone tries to claim they are someone else. If your social security number is used on the other side of the country it still shows up on your credit report and because of that people start investigating and then finding the perpetrators and bringing charges.
Utah Criminal Code | Identity Fraud Crime
In Utah the criminal offense of identity fraud is described as obtaining personal identity information and knowingly or intentionally using it to obtain goods, services, or anything else of value. Two important facets of this crime is that it doesn’t matter if the information is of a deceased person and it doesn’t matter if the defendant didn’t know that the information belonged to someone else. Why this is important is because one of the most common scenarios of identity fraud is for immigrants who have come into America illegally and have obtained what they believe to be a made up social security number. Because it is not a defense that you didn’t know the information belonged to someone else these individuals can be convicted of identity theft if they use the social security number in some way to obtain something of value.
Ogden Criminal Defense Attorney | Defending Against Identity Theft Charges
A criminal defense attorney is crucial when you’re dealing with a white collar crime like identity theft because it is a felony offense and carries serious penalties. Call Ogden Criminal Defense right away if you have been charged with a identity theft or fraud.
