Fraud & Forgery

The elements of forgery are that the State shows that the defendant (1) with the intent to defraud or harm another (2) passed (3) a writing (4) that purported to be the act of another and (5) that the other person did not authorize the act. The intent to defraud or harm may be established by circumstantial evidence according to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Forgery does not necessarily always involve enormous transactions. And it does not always involve a false check. The Texas Penal Code does not define “commercial instrument,” but football tickets can be considered commercial instruments for purposes of forgery.

An indictment for passing a forged instrument does not suffer from a fatal variance when the store manager rather than the salesperson is named as the passee.

Counterfeit driver’s licenses also fall under the category of fraud. Possession of a forged writing is a criminal offense.