A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the Criminal penalty for the offense of obtaining property by false pretenses when the money or property obtained is valued between five thousand dollars and one hundred thousand dollars.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑100 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑100.  Obtaining property by false pretenses.
(a)	If any person shall knowingly and designedly by means of any kind of false pretense whatsoever, whether the false pretense is of a past or subsisting fact or of a future fulfillment or event, obtain or attempt to obtain from any person within this State any money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value with intent to cheat or defraud any person of such money, goods, property, services, chose in action or other thing of value, such person shall be guilty of a felony: Provided, that if, on the trial of anyone indicted for such crime, it shall be proved that he obtained the property in such manner as to amount to larceny or embezzlement, the jury shall have submitted to them such other felony proved; and no person tried for such felony shall be liable to be afterwards prosecuted for larceny or embezzlement upon the same facts: Provided, further, that it shall be sufficient in any indictment for obtaining or attempting to obtain any such money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value by false pretenses to allege that the party accused did the act with intent to defraud, without alleging an intent to defraud any particular person, and without alleging any ownership of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action or other thing of value; and upon the trial of any such indictment, it shall not be necessary to prove either an intent to defraud any particular person or that the person to whom the false pretense was made was the person defrauded, but it shall be sufficient to allege and prove that the party accused made the false pretense charged with an intent to defraud.
(a1)	A person convicted of an offense under this section shall be punished as follows:
(1)	If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) or more, a violation of this section is a Class C felony.
(2)	If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) or more, but less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), a violation of this section is a Class E felony.
(3)	If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is twenty‑five thousand dollars ($25,000) or more, but less than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), a violation of this section is a Class F felony.
(4)	If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is five thousand dollars ($5,000) or more, but less than twenty‑five thousand dollars ($25,000), a violation of this section is a Class G felony.
(5)	If the value of the money, goods, property, services, chose in action, or other thing of value is less than five thousand dollars ($5,000) a violation of this section is a Class H felony.
(b)	Evidence of nonfulfillment of a contract obligation standing alone shall not establish the essential element of intent to defraud.
(c)	For purposes of this section, "person" means person, association, consortium, corporation, body politic, partnership, or other group, entity, or organization."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2009, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.