18 Dec 2014
Imagine that you are ill, and have been hospitalized. Like many people in this situation, you keep your wallet, along with your identification (driver’s license, etc.) and credit cards in your bedside table. Well, maybe that’s not such a good idea, at least if you are a patient at St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center in Round Rock, Texas.
Police say that a hospital employee went into a patient’s room at the facility, took the patient’s credit card, and proceeded to use it to make purchases at a gas station and a liquor store. But things then got even worse. The patient, a woman who had since left the hospital, was contacted by her credit card company regarding some purchases the company found to be suspicious. When the police got involved, they learned that at least two other patients had also complained that their credit cards had been stolen. All the alleged victims were elderly, according to the news accounts.
The (now) ex-employee is facing charges of credit card abuse under section 32.31 of the Texas Penal Code. Under that statute, it is an offense, among other things, to steal a credit card with intent to benefit fraudulently from its use, and to use a credit card knowing that the cardholder has not consented.
While these offenses resemble theft, the penalties are much more severe. For example, simple theft involving property valued at under $1,500 is ordinarily a misdemeanor, although there are exceptions. Credit card abuse, on the other hand, is not classified with other theft charges; rather, it is included within the general category of fraud. And a violation, independent of the value of the property involved, is state jail felony . . . in most cases. Here, however, it is alleged that the victims were elderly. The statute specifically provides that where credit card abuse is committed against a person who is “elderly” (anyone 65 years of age or older), it is a felony of the third degree. In practical terms, that difference is huge – a sentencing range of 180 days to two years for a state jail felony, versus a sentence of two to ten years for a third degree felony.
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC
1201 Rio Grande Street #200
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 369-3737