These presumptions operate as permissive infer-
ences. State v. Humphrey, 183 N.J. Super. 580, 584 (Law
Div. 1982), aff’d., 209 N.J. Super. 152 (App. Div. 1986).
B. Grading
The crime is of the second degree if the amount of the
check or money order is $75,000 or more. N.J.S.A.
2C:21-5c(1). It is of the third degree if the amount is
$1,000 or more but is less than $75,000. N.J.S.A.
2C:21-5c(2). It is of the fourth degree if the amount is
$200 or more but is less than $1,000. N.J.S.A. 2C:21-
5c(3). It is a disorderly persons offense if the amount is
less than $200. N.J.S.A. 2C:21-5c(4).
C. Merger
Whereby theft under N.J.S.A. 2C:20-4 and issuing
a bad check under this section are charged and the
property underlying the charges was received by means
of issuing a bad check, the counts merge for sentencing
purposes. State v. Alevras, 213 N.J. Super. 331, 341-42
(App. Div. 1986).
The offense of passing a bad check is not a lesser
included offense of forgery. State v. Passafiume, 184 N.J.
Super. 447, 449 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 91 N.J. 280
(1982). Conviction of the bad check offense requires
proof of the element of knowledge that the check would
not be honored by the drawee, which is not an element
of the forgery offense. Id.
X. CREDIT CARDS
A. Provisions of the Statute
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6c provides that it is a fourth-degree
crime for any person to take, obtain, use, retain, receive,
sign, sell, transfer, or accept a credit card with the intent
to obtain or provide property or services if that person
knows that the card is stolen, forged, lost, revoked,
cancelled, expired or that the use is, for any other reason,
unauthorized by the issuer or owner of the card.
It is also a fourth-degree crime to knowingly make a
false statement in procuring the issuance of a credit card.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6b.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6c(5) provides that is a third-degree
crime to make, falsely emboss, or utter such a credit card
with the intent to obtain property or services.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6d provides that it is a third-degree
crime for a person with fraudulent intent to use a forged,
expired, or non-issued credit card with knowledge of its
nature to obtain property or services.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6e(1) provides that it is a third-
degree crime for a person authorized by the issuer to
furnish property or services with fraudulent intent to
furnish property or services upon presentation of an
unauthorized credit card, with knowledge of its forged,
expired, or revoked nature.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6e(2) provides that it is a fourth-
degree crime for a person authorized by the issuer to
furnish property or services with fraudulent intent to fail
to furnish property or services upon presentation of a
credit card, while reporting in writing to the issuer that
he has furnished property or services.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6f provides that it is a third-degree
crime for a person other than the cardholder to possess
two or more incomplete credit cards or reproduction
instruments with knowledge of their character with
intent to complete or reproduce without consent of the
issuer.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6g provides that it is a fourth-degree
crime to receive property or services with the knowledge
that such property or services were obtained in violation
of this section.
N.J.S.A. 2C:21-6h provides that is a third-degree
crime for a person with fraudulent intent to knowingly
use a counterfeit, fictitious, altered, forged, lost, stolen or
fraudulently obtained credit card to obtain property or
services. It is also a third-degree crime for a person with
unlawful or fraudulent intent to furnish, acquire, or use
an actual or fictitious credit card, whether alone or
together with names of credit cardholders, or other
information pertinent to a credit card account in any
form.
B. Overlapping Statutes
In State v. Gledhill, 67 N.J. 565 (1975), the question
presented in this pre-Code case was whether one who
utters a false or forged credit card with intent to damage
or defraud another may be prosecuted under N.J.S.A.
2A:109-1b, a section of the forgery statute, or whether
prosecution had to come under N.J.S.A. 2A:111-43, a
section of the credit card act.