Buying or Possessing Vehicles with Altered VIN Numbers

Very often when you’re looking at crimes that are included under the penal code, it can become pretty easy to get confused over the complicated language that you’ll find there, and it’s not very surprising that this is the case. When you think about it, the law wasn’t written for the average person, but rather for lawyers who have literally years of experience working through the meaning of the law as well as how they can apply it to ways that they can help their clients. With that said, in this post we’re going to look at the charge of Buying or Possessing Vehicles with Altered VIN Numbers, the definitions involved, punishments, as well as defenses that you can possibly use as well.

Buying or Possessing Vehicles with Altered VIN Numbers

What this law basically means is that it’s illegal for you to buy or possess either more than one vehicle or parts from more than one vehicle when that vehicle or the parts from it have tampered-with VINs, and the vehicle or parts were gotten for the purpose of either a resale or a transfer. As you’ll see with a lot of the laws on the books, the charge of Buying or Possessing Vehicles with Altered VIN Numbers is considered to be a wobbler offense, which basically means that it can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. If it ends up getting charged as a misdemeanor, then it’s punished with up to a year in county jail, and/or a fine of up to a thousand dollars. Now if the crime is charged as a felony, then the punishment for it depends on whether you possessed the vehicles or parts or actually purchased them. If you possess these things, the crime is punishable by sixteen months, two or three years in county jail, and/or a fine of up to thirty thousand dollars. Now if you’re purchasing them, the punishment is two, four, or six years in county jail, and/or a fine of up to sixty thousand dollars. Obviously the misdemeanor charge is the preferable one of the two, but even that has a pretty steep penalty, so if there are any defenses that apply to you it’s important that you take these into account when getting into touch with counsel and trying to mount a legal defense.