Over the holiday season, you can’t turn around without seeing material items for sale, being bought or being given. Excessive purchases are loaded into trunks, and happy tunes assault the airways. To be without, or to know others who won’t be receiving gifts makes the holiday a little unbearable and perhaps that is why the news is full of warnings about stolen packages and car thefts at this time of year. Sometimes the intention is not to deprive another; that is just a necessary evil of providing for another when you have little monetarily to assist.
The penalties attached to theft convictions are not concrete or standard. They can vary widely based upon the circumstances around the crime. Sometimes expressing the reason behind a crime can help. Sometimes admitting guilt and accepting responsibility can go farther. Fines are sometimes all that is given and other times you may face jail time.
Regardless of the repercussions you face legally, the effects of a conviction on your record can be far more reaching. That is why it is so important to immediately contact a criminal defense attorney if you were charged with a theft-related crime this holiday season. If charges cannot be dropped or reduced, the penalties may be downsized and jail time may be avoided completely.
If you are facing charges of petit theft, shoplifting, grand theft or dealing in stolen property you don’t want to put your life in the hands of a court-appointed attorney. Don’t make the decision that your charges aren’t worth hiring an attorney for and don’t believe your case is ever open-and-shut. The criminal defense attorneys of Escobar, Michaels & Associates will do everything in their power to see your charges are dropped or reduced.