Identity Theft and Article 180 – How Such Conduct Is Qualified
Using another person's personal data to obtain property is qualified under Article 180 of the Criminal Code of Georgia – the fraud article. The article defines fraud as the unlawful appropriation of another's property, or the acquisition of a property right, by deception. In identity-theft cases the deception consists in presenting oneself as another person, or acting with another person's documents and data, so that the victim transfers property or a property right. The legal core remains the same: deception in the service of unlawful appropriation.
In legal terms the same two elements are decisive here as in every fraud case – deception and the aim of appropriation. The prosecution must prove that the person used another's identity as the instrument of deception and, through it, appropriated another's property or acquired a property right. The fact of the misuse of identity must be established by evidence in each individual case, and it is on the reliability of that evidence that a lawyer builds the defense position.