Establishes the crime of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received

BILL NUMBER:S7395

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to establish- ing the crime of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received

Purpose

To make theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received a class A misdemeanor.

Summary of provisions

Amends the penal law by adding a new section 165.18 to make it a crime to fail to make required disposition of funds received. Theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received would be a class A misde- meanor.

Justification

On average, ambulance service companies lose thousands of dollars a month from patients who have used the ambulance service, their insurance company is billed and the company sends a check to the patient to pay the ambulance. However rather than paying the bill, the person pockets the money and leaves the ambulance services company high and dry.

Ambulance services can take these people to collection agencies, but they still do not receive all the money to which they were originally entitled. These added costs contribute to higher ambulance charges and higher insurance premiums for everyone.

This legislation is an effort to curb this practice of stiffing ambu- lance services by making it a crime of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, to be punishable as a class A misdemea- nor.

Legislative history

New.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Immediate.