Credit card offenses fall under class B and C of a felony. Therefore, credit card fraud law hinges on criminal penalties relative to a deceptive or illegal use of another person’s credit card or credit account details to steal money, services, or goods. An interesting statistic about felony is that forty-three percent of felony cases had at least a prior felony conviction, according to Cohen and Reaves (2012), making felony cases critical among major urban counties in the US from 2006. In this discussion, multiple uses of an accidentally acquired credit card are discussed relative to the state of Washington vs. Leyda, 138 P.3d 610 (Wash. 2006). The discussion takes the view that every instance of unauthorized credit card use by the offender is an isolated count of felony. Moreover, relative to the category of a felony, they constitute multiple counts of violating the state statute that makes it a crime as depicted in the Washington State Legislature (2019) as “to obtain knowingly, possess, use, or transfer a means of identification or financial information of another.”
The identity theft statute that credit card theft violates is determined in two categories. When an accused or an accomplice uses a stolen means of identification or financial information as well as obtain an aggregate total credit, goods, money, services, or anything else of value less than a thousand-five hundred USD in value shall constitute first-degree identity theft, a class B felony. For the aggregate totals of more than a thousand-five hundred USD, is second-degree identity theft, a class C felony. Under this respect, in the case of State vs. Leyda, 138 P.3d 610 (Wash. 2006) according to Miller and Wright (2019), it was determined that Steven Leyda was guilty of eight counts of felony; four among them second degree identity theft, one count of second degree theft, two counts relative to third-degree theft and one count of second degree possession of stolen property (FindLaw, 2006) .
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Leyda obtains a credit card of another person unlawfully, and used it on several occasions; each occasion constitutes a violation of the statute as they are independent instances of knowingly and unlawfully using a stolen identity to acquire property, goods, or services. In those instances, he violates the statute’s various categories of a felony that must only be treated as different counts. Therefore, if a person accidentally acquires a credit card, they must report it to the relevant authority. Otherwise, the use of such property is identity theft. Every use constitutes an independent felony that is charged relative to the aggregate amount of property value in USD used and weighed against either a Class B or Class C felony, and such criminals are only charged under these counts.
Another argument would be relative to the state of mind of the person accidentally obtaining the credit card and intended moral harm. The person’s intention was not criminal until the time they decide to use the card, a point which mens rea and actus reus ensue paving the way to the person committing actus reus with mens rea, hence, suffice as being criminally liable to the identity theft statute (Edwards, 2018). Every conduct or action after this point depicts an independent decision to defraud, steal, and gain services in violation of the identity theft statute, and constitute multiple counts of the consequential crime.
This discussion, and reference to the theories of criminal law, case laws, and the statute against identity theft, determine that an accidental acquisition of another person’s credit card and their use to acquire property, services, or goods in several instances constitute multiple violations of the statute against identity theft. In any instance of such violations, a person either commits a class B or Class C felony, that should be charged in isolation in a court of law, without conflicting double jeopardy as Steven Leyda argued in his appeal for the eight counts with which he was charged.
References
Cohen, T. H., & Reaves, B. (2012). Felony defendants in large urban counties, 2006 . BiblioGo v.
Washington State Legislature. (2019). RCW 9.35.020: Identity theft. Retrieved from https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.35.020
Edwards, J. (2018). Theories of Criminal Law (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Retrieved from https://stanford.library.sydney.edu.au/entries/criminal-law/ .
Miller, M. L., & Wright, R. F. (2019). Criminal procedures: Prosecution and adjudication . Alphen aan den Rijn: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business .
FindLaw. (2006). STATE v. LEYDA: FindLaw's Supreme Court of Washington case and opinions. Retrieved from https://caselaw.findlaw.com/wa-supreme-court/1220663.html
