What the charge means
The statute describes five ways to commit identity theft. All of them require acting knowingly and without permission or lawful authority:
- Using another person's personal identifying information, financial identifying information, or financial device (such as a card or account) to obtain cash, credit, property, services, or anything else of value, or to make a payment
- Falsely making, completing, altering, or uttering a written instrument or financial device that contains another person's information, with intent to defraud
- Possessing another person's information intending that it be used to obtain something of value
- Possessing another person's information to apply for a financial device or other extension of credit
- Using or possessing another person's information to obtain a government issued document
Personal identifying information includes things like a name paired with a Social Security number, date of birth, driver's license number, account numbers, passwords, and PINs. Prosecutors must prove you knew the information belonged to another real person and that you had no permission. Many cases grow out of family or relationship disputes over shared cards and accounts, where permission is exactly what is contested.
Classification and sentencing
Using another person's information to obtain something of value, and forging documents containing it, are each a class 4 felony. If the court imposes prison, the presumptive range is 2 to 6 years, followed by 3 years of mandatory parole, with a fine range of $2,000 to $500,000.
The possession based and government document versions of the offense are class 2 misdemeanors, with up to 120 days in jail if jail is imposed. They rise to a class 5 felony when the case involves three or more financial devices or the information of three or more people.
These ranges apply only if the court orders incarceration. Probation and other sentences are often possible for a first offense. There is one important exception: Colorado law requires a prison sentence for identity theft when the person has a prior conviction for identity theft or a related offense.
What else it touches
A felony identity theft conviction bars firearm possession under Colorado and federal law. As a fraud offense, it can carry serious immigration consequences for noncitizens. It is also a difficult record to carry into any job involving money, data, or customer accounts, and it matters in professional licensing. Sealing may be possible after a waiting period once the sentence is complete, depending on the case, and restitution to the people and businesses involved is a standard part of these cases.
We defend identity theft charges across Colorado, and a consultation is the place to get answers about your specific situation.
This page is general information about Colorado law, not legal advice about your case. The law changes; for advice on your situation, talk to us.
Plain answers
Common questions.
It can be charged that way if it was done knowingly and without permission. Many of these cases come down to whether permission existed or reasonably appeared to exist, which is a fact question a defense can develop.
Prison becomes mandatory on a new identity theft conviction when the person has a prior conviction for identity theft or a related offense. Without that kind of prior, probation and other non prison sentences are often available.
The first step
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