O.C.G.A.
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
(a) A person who is subject to the punishment and penalties of this subsection shall be fined not more than $1,000.00 or imprisoned not less than one year nor more than two years, or both. (b) A person subject to punishment under this subsection shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000.00 or imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than three years, or both.
History
(Code 1933, § 26-1705.9, enacted by Ga. L. 1969, p. 128, § 1; Ga. L. 1972, p. 861, § 1; Code 1933, § 26-1705.8, enacted by Ga. L. 1980, p. 1083, § 1.)
Annotations
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Cited in Dudley v. State, 228 Ga. 551, 186 S.E.2d 875 (1972). RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 20 Am. Jur. 2d, Credit Cards and Charge Accounts, § 1 et seq.
ALR. - Liability of holder of credit card or plate for purchases made thereon
by another person, 15 A.L.R.3d 1086.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
5
cases (
2 in the last 5 years), 2013–2025 · leading case:
McNair v. State, 745 S.E.2d 646 (Ga. 2013).
McNair v. State, 745 S.E.2d 646 (Ga. 2013).
· cites it 2× “…financial transaction card theft carries a penalty of up to three years imprisonment or up to $5,000 in fines. OCGA §§ 16-9-38 and 16-9-126 (a).”
McNair v. State, 757 S.E.2d 141 (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “The penalty for identity fraud is up to ten years in prison and/or up to $100,000 in fines, whereas the penalty for financial-transaction-card theft is up to three years in prison and/or up to $5,000 in fines.”
Chittranjan Thakkar v. Naresh Parikh (Ga. Ct. App. 2025).
· cites it 2× “See OCGA § 16-9-38. Therefore, taking the three guideposts together (and giving appropriate emphasis to reprehensibility), the jury’s award of $65 million in punitive damages appears to be grossly excessive, especially given the insular nature of the specific act being punished…”
Eddie Champion v. State (Ga. Ct. App. 2023).
· cites it 2× “State that, under the “particular facts of [the] case,” the defendant was entitled to the benefit of the rule of lenity as between the identity fraud statute and financial transaction card theft statute.”
Todd McNair v. State (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “Compare OCGA § 16-9-126 (a) with OCGA § 16-9-38 (b). 3 “[a] person commits the offense of financial transaction card theft when .”
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.