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What are the penalties associated with petty theft?

Petty theft is one of the most common charges filed in the Tampa Bay area against individuals. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, more individuals have seemingly found themselves being accused of petty theft. Further, more often than not, petty theft involves individuals who have never been accused of any other prior crimes and simply made one bad mistake on one day and were caught for it.  At Hackworth Law, we pride ourselves on making sure that those individuals who made one bad mistake on one day aren’t forced to relive those consequences for the rest of their lives and have to report it to future employers, schools, friends and anyone else who may be concerned about their background.

First, it’s important to look at the penalties associated with petty theft as they are different depending on one’s priors and the value of the items allegedly stolen. If the items allegedly stolen value between $100 to $300 or the individual has a prior theft conviction, petty theft is a first degree misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in the county jail and a $1,000 fine. If the items are less than $100 and the person does not have a prior conviction, it’s a second degree misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of 60 days in the county jail and a $500 fine. As you can imagine, these sentences are incredibly severe given the amount that is usually allegedly stolen.  More often than not, the dollar amounts in question are very small.  We provided a link to the Statute criminalizing petty theft in Florida.

Further, these cases are unique because they often involve restitution to the alleged victim. Restitution, as we’ve discussed elsewhere in our Tampa criminal defense attorney blog, is a means for the State Attorney’s office to attempt to make the victim whole from the allegations against the defendant. For example, if an individual steals a $10 meal at a restaurant, Florida law permits the victim to claim damages of $10 from the victim, again in an attempt to make themselves whole. Our office has extensive experience dealing with restitution to ensure our client’s rights are protected and they are not forced to overpay, again by trying to just “get something over with.” Unfortunately many individuals, who are either pro se or quickly meet with an assistant public defender prior to entering their plea are stuck with hefty restitution bills, which they otherwise may not have to pay.

Interestingly enough, these cases also potentially involve a driver’s license suspension. Florida law permits the court to suspend someone’s driver’s license for up to six months for the first petty theft conviction through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. For a second conviction, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles can suspend one’s driver’s license for up to a year. As you can imagine, again folks who are either pro se or just quickly meet with an assistant public defender prior to entering their plea are not made aware of these collateral consequences and only learn of them when they are arrested for either driving without a license or their probation is violated.  While many people cannot understand the correlation or relationship between petty theft and a driver’s license, Florida law still attempts to force one between the two.

Further, petty theft is considered a “crime of dishonesty.”  The general rule of thumb is that any charge involving dishonesty, theft or fraud will likely constitute a “crime of dishonesty.”  This is particularly concerning because it can come up in later court proceedings against the individual. And employers are undoubtedly going to consider the crime of dishonesty in one’s ability to get hired. Unfortunately, again many folks are in a hurry to just simply get the charge resolved and are not aware of these long term implications for their future.

If you or someone you know is facing a petty theft or other theft related charge, contact the Tampa criminal defense attorneys of Hackworth Law for a free case consultation. We have handled hundreds of cases involving theft across the Tampa Bay area and have had great success in getting these charges reduced or dropped. If you’d like to contact one of our Tampa theft attorneys immediately, please use the “contact us now” tab in the upper right hand corner of our website. We appreciate you taking the time to check out our Tampa theft attorney blog and look forward to working with you in the future.