Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 817.05 (2025)

False statements to merchants as to financial condition.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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817.05 False statements to merchants as to financial condition.Any merchant in the state, before extending credit to any person applying for the same, may require such applicant to furnish a statement in writing showing the property owned and the salary being earned by said applicant, and if said statement, or any part thereof, is false, provided the same be made willfully, and signed by applicant in presence of two witnesses, and any person obtains credit from any merchant by reason of the merchant relying on and being deceived by said false statement, or any part thereof, then said person so obtaining credit or goods shall be deemed guilty of obtaining money or goods under false pretenses and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
History.s. 1, ch. 19487, 1939; CGL 1940 Supp. 7264(1); s. 844, ch. 71-136.

Arrestable Offenses under F.S. 817.05

M = misdemeanor · F = felony · degree: F=1st S=2nd T=3rd
§817.05FRAUD-FALSE STATEMENTMAKE FALSE STATEMENT OBT MERCHANT CREDIT/GOODSM · 1st
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 1998–1998 · leading case: Jenkins v. Golf Channel, 714 So. 2d 558 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998).
Jenkins v. Golf Channel, 714 So. 2d 558 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). “03, § 817.05, § 817.15 (fraud), and/or Florida Statutes Chapter 895 (RICO); 9.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.

This Florida statute resource is curated by the attorney maintaining this site, a Jacksonville, Florida criminal defense attorney (Florida Bar No. 39104). Attorney Syfert regularly handles Chapter 817 matters in the context of fraud and white collar defense and represents clients throughout Northeast Florida. For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.