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In Atlantic Beach, officials for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation have been cracking down on contractors who solicit customers for work they are not licensed to perform, according to an article on www.Firstcoastnews.com. According to the report, contractors in the Jacksonville area were advertising on the popular website Craigslist for services that require a license but were not in fact licensed. They would then agree to perform the work, take an initial deposit and then disappear.

The State of Florida regulates and licenses contractors who perform work such as additions to a home, roofing, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work. In order to obtain a license, contractors generally must pass an exam, take continuing education courses, prove that they are financially stable and show proof of insurance.

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For every ATM card or debit card that is issued by a bank or other financial institution to a customer, there is a PIN code that allows the customer to access the funds in the account. The PIN codes are supposed to be among the most heavily secured elements of the banking transactions. However, according to court documents and a report on Sfgate.com, thieves have been able to access numerous PIN codes and millions of dollars of bank customers’ money by breaking into the computer network of automated teller machines (ATM”s) at various 7-Eleven convenience stores.

Customers’ PIN codes are supposed to be protected by the banks and other financial institutions with the highest level of encryption (the use of secret coding to prevent others from reading information). However, some operators of ATM’s are not using the recommended strong encryption methods allowing hackers to access the PIN data that goes from the ATM’s to the computer systems that process the transactions.

Law enforcement officials do not know exactly how the thieves accessed the PIN codes, but believe it was done remotely via a server. As a result, customers and potential victims would not notice anything different about an ATM, the use of which could potentially result in the theft of their PIN code.

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According to police officials in various counties in Florida, one result of the increase in gas prices is a corresponding increase in the number and degree of theft cases involving gas. Some of the thefts are committed on a small scale and involve siphoning gas from the gas tanks of vehicles or tampering with gas tanks at the gas stations. Other thefts are more significant and involve the theft of hundreds of gallons of gas from fuel tanks. This kind of theft likely takes a planned and concerted effort involving multiple people.

In one criminal case out of Marion County (which is about 100 miles Southwest of Jacksonville, Florida), a couple was arrested for grand theft and burglary for stealing gas after drilling a hole in a gas tank. According to the article at OrlandoSentinel.com, the male suspect left his power drill, which had his name on it, at the scene of the crime.

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The federal crime of mortgage fraud has become a priority for federal law enforcement officials, according to a recent FBI press release. Over the last few months, the FBI and Department of Justice have undertaken coordinated efforts to arrest and prosecute those allegedly responsible for committing mortgage fraud. No doubt, the recent and continuing problems with the housing markets and foreclosures throughout Jacksonville, Florida and many other parts of the country have played a significant role in the decision to make mortgage fraud an increasing priority. In approximately three and a half months, over 400 people were charged with mortgage fraud across the country. According to federal officials, these cases involved approximately $1 billion in losses.

The crime of mortgage fraud can occur in a few different ways. A borrower may make misrepresentations on a mortgage application about his/her income, liabilities or intention for the property in order to obtain a mortgage or a better rate on a mortgage. An appraiser may inflate the value of property to entice a lender to approve a higher loan than the property used as collateral would warrant or the fraudulent and excessively high appraisal amount may be obtained to allow the buyer to quickly re-sell, or flip, the house to an unsuspecting buyer (although this is more difficult in today’s difficult housing market). There are many other forms of mortgage fraud. For more information about the various mortgage fraud schemes, go to the FBI’s website which discusses the subject.

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It may be the personal characteristics and personality of the police officer that determine whether you will be arrested for DUI (also referred to as DWI, drunk driving and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs) in Jacksonville, Florida. Much of the evidence that a police officer uses to support a DUI arrest is subjective- i.e., slurred speech, strong odor of alcohol or marijuana, bloodshot eyes, swaying, behavior consistent with being drunk or otherwise intoxicated, inconsistent answers and of course, the results of a field sobriety test. If a particular police officer decides that you failed the field sobriety test or are exhibiting signs of intoxication, he/she will likely make an arrest.

A study of DUI arrests by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration confirmed that the difference in characteristics among police officers is a very important factor in determining whether a DUI arrest will be made or not. The study showed that a police officer’s age and experience are important factors in DUI arrests. Younger, less experienced police officers make more DUI arrests than older, more experienced police officers. Not surprisingly, police officers who do not drink are much more likely to make a DUI arrest than those who do drink. A police officer nearing the end of his/her shift is less likely to make a DUI arrest than one early in the shift. If the police officer perceives the driver as uncooperative, the officer is more likely to make a DUI arrest. Specialized traffic enforcement police officers are more likely to make DUI arrests than police officers with general duties. The less a police officer has been educated about how much alcohol consumption is required to cause a driver to be over the legal limit, the more likely the officer will sympathize with the driver.

In Jacksonville, Florida, a DUI arrest has serious potential penalties and ramifications from jail time to a prolonged license suspension. Given the serious nature of a DUI charge, it is disturbing to see a study that shows the many arbitrary factors that would lead one police officer to make a DUI arrest while another may not that have nothing to do with whether a driver actually committed the crime. As it turns out, maybe the last police officer you want to see after having a couple of drinks at dinner is a young, new police officer in the DUI enforcement unit who does not drink and is just starting his/her shift.

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Gas prices have become a central issue in Jacksonville and throughout the country as they continue to rise into the summer months with no relief in sight. Americans have established a lifestyle conducive to low gas prices, and many of us are having a difficult time making adjustments to the recent inflated gas prices. Of course, gas prices in Jacksonville and through the United States are not nearly as high as they are in many other countries, like those in Europe, but that is no consolation to people here who pay twice as much or more to fill up their gas tanks than they did a year or two ago.

Police departments, whose officers spend much of their shifts driving, are also having a difficult time working the increased fuel expenses into their budgets. One city in Northwest Georgia is dealing with their budget difficulties due to higher gas prices by adding a $12 fuel surcharge to each ticket for a moving violation, such as speeding, according to an article at www.USAToday.com. The city, Holly Springs, Georgia, is doing this to avoid raising property taxes. According to the article, the Holly Springs police chief has been getting a number of calls from police chiefs and city managers from other cities inquiring about their program. This is the kind of thing that could certainly catch on and spread to other cities.

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In Jacksonville, Florida it is very common for Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) officers to increase the number of DUI arrests (aka DWI or drunk driving) around July 4th, particularly when July 4th falls on or near a weekend as it does this year. Jacksonville residents may see an increase in DUI checkpoints or roadblocks and Jacksonville police officers on the roads looking for people they suspect are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs in certain areas they consider higher DUI crime areas.

Interestingly, police checkpoints for DUI stops and investigations may be more trouble than they are worth, according to an article last year on www.azstarnet.com. That article notes that in two years of DUI checkpoints in Arizona, more than 46,000 drivers were stopped, but only 1% of them were arrested for DUI and fewer than half of that 1% were convicted of DUI. The number of DUI arrests did not change whether the DUI checkpoints were in place or not.

If you have any questions about a DUI arrest in Jacksonville or the Northeast Florida area or DUI laws in general, we invite you to contact us any time.

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A police officer and former magistrate judge were charged with human trafficking and several other federal crimes for allegedly bringing a woman into the United States from India under false pretenses and subjecting her to a form of “modern day slavery” in Georgia, according to an article at www.ajc.com.

According to federal prosecutors, the defendants lied to the Indian victim and told her she would be employed as a nanny, but after she arrived in the United States, they refused to pay her, made her live in an unheated basement, limited her access to the outside and told her she was a criminal and threatened to have her arrested. When the victim was able to escape the house, one of the defendants reportedly contacted the Department of Homeland Security and reported that the victim may be a terrorist.

Federal human trafficking allegations are considered a top priority and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, according to representatives of the Department of Justice. Earlier this year, three defendants in New Jersey were given maximum sentences after pleading guilty to human trafficking for their role in bringing Hondurans into the United States, lodging them in cramped apartments and forcing them to work extensive hours dancing in bars for low wages that were taken away to pay for the cost of smuggling them into the country.

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Financial identify fraud and financial identity theft are increasingly common crimes. A person can be a victim of these financial identity crimes without knowing about it for days, weeks or months. Once a victim of these crimes, it can be very costly and time consuming to get one’s credit and financial situation in the same position it was in prior to the crime.

One way to check and see if your identity or financial accounts have been stolen is to check your credit report. What many people are not aware of is that you can get a copy of your credit report for free once a year. If you want to obtain a copy of your credit report more often than that, you can for a fee. However, it is important to note that there are three companies that maintain credit information- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. If you want to have a thorough picture of your credit situation, you need to see your credit report from each of the three companies. Why? Well, if someone steals your identity and orders a new credit card with it, that credit card company may check your credit through Experian. Therefore, if you only see your credit report from Equifax, you will not be aware of the fraudulent credit card on the Experian credit report. So, the best course of action is to stagger your order for one free credit report from each company every four months. If you want to order your credit report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com.

Unfortunately, ordering your credit report and seeing an unauthorized entry on there obviously will not prevent your identity or financial information from being stolen; it will just alert you to that fact and allow you to start the process of restoring your credit. One way to try and prevent financial identity fraud or theft is to place a fraud alert on your credit file, which is free. You only need to do this with one of the three credit bureaus as they will notify the others. This will alert the credit bureaus to contact you for verification if anyone applies for credit under your name. Fraud alerts need to be renewed every 90 days.

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A person who has been arrested for a crime in Florida and elsewhere has the right to remain silent. Most people have heard of the Miranda warnings that are read to a person pursuant to an arrest, which includes the right to remain silent. However, the right to remain silent is a right afforded by the Constitution and begins as soon as a person is arrested even if the police officer has not yet read the Miranda warnings.

Another aspect of the right to remain silent after an arrest is the fact that, in the subsequent criminal trial, the prosecutor is not allowed to make a comment to the jury about the defendant’s silence after the arrest or the defendant’s exercise of his/her right to remain silent for the time period before, during and after the Miranda warnings are read after the arrest. An improper comment by the prosecutor about a criminal defendant’s silence after an arrest can take several forms, and most of them are improper.

For instance, consider a recent Florida criminal case where a person in an airport consented to a search of his luggage in which the police found two bricks of cocaine. The subject remained silent when he and the officer saw the cocaine in his bag and was arrested. At the trial, the defendant testified, and the criminal defense attorney argued, that the defendant did not know the drugs were in his bag. The prosecutor commented that if that was the case, the defendant should have said something about how he was surprised the cocaine was in his bag and that he did not put them there as soon as he and the police officer saw the bricks of cocaine. This was found to be an improper comment on the defendant’s silence after his arrest and his conviction for drug trafficking was reversed.

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121 W Forsyth St #520
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Office: 904-642-3332
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409 Montgomery Rd #115
Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
Office: 407-228-2019
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