Virginia Embezzlement Lawyer
Virginia embezzlement lawyers define embezzlement as theft by an employee. It is theft of money that is entrusted to a person by a company or a single employer. The most common types of embezzlement occur by people who are operating cash registers and either skimming off the top or engaging in fraudulent returns where they take items from the store and pretend they are being returned and then they are crediting them to their account or taking straight cash out of the register for such things. That is the most typical type of fraud seen by Virginia embezzlement lawyers.
If you are facing charges of embezzlement or fraud, contacting a practiced Virginia defense lawyer may be critical to your defense. A Virginia embezzlement lawyer that has experience in a variety of criminal defense cases understands the importance of a solid defense and can best help to fight your charges.
Important Evidence
One of the most important pieces of evidence in a Virginia embezzlement case that is required to be shown by the government is that the person did steal, but with embezzlement, there is an additional level of proof that is required which is to say that they must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person stole while being entrusted with the money that the person stole or the property that they stole. That level of trust that is assigned to an employee raises the stakes from a simple theft conviction because there is an element of abusive trust that plays into it which typically results in harsher dispositions.
Consequences of Conviction
Embezzlement lawyers have seen that the immediate penalties and consequences for embezzlement conviction can include jail or prison time and a lot of that depends on a number of variables for not everybody who is charged and convicted of embezzlement faces jail time. But if the amount rises to a level that constitutes a felony which is anything in excess of $200, jail or prison time certainly could be a possible sentence. Estimation of loss is an important consideration when determining sentencing guidelines.
A Virginia embezzlement conviction tells anybody that looks at a person’s criminal history and in their future that the person has stolen from an employer. That makes it extraordinarily difficult to find any level of employment down the line. Even after the person comes off of either jail time or probation or whatever it is that happens, the person is going to be feeling an embezzlement conviction for a very long time.
Building a Defense
The approach to an embezzlement defense depends on the charges, the individual’s entire employment record and whether or not what they are being accused of is a pattern or an isolated incident. Whatever the fact pattern, an embezzlement attorney will want to know if the incident in question was done by a mistake or by a misunderstanding of company policy or anything else that demonstrates the lack of intent.
If someone could not find the money in the cash register at a large company, they could be charged with embezzlement even if they had no idea what happened or where the money went. Making a simple mistake like that is the most common presented defense in embezzlement cases.
Contacting an Embezzlement Attorney
Hiring an embezzlement lawyer with a tremendous amount of experience in Virginia embezzlement cases is important because they will know exactly how best to go about defending the person in the case. A Virginia embezzlement lawyer will only gain that experience with time and by doing previous cases just like the one that the person has been charged with. Having that experience on that person’s side is always an asset.
The best practice is always to contact an embezzlement lawyer as soon as the person finds out that they are being investigated. Often, police will want to talk to the person or somebody from human resources within a company or perhaps loss prevention within the company who want to talk to the person about what it is they think the person has been up to and try to get the person to confess to it.
In many embezzlement cases, the evidence that they have on the person is not strong enough to go forward with prosecution without that confession so talking to a Virginia embezzlement lawyer will help and to get the person’s mind right for what is coming and help the person understand that talking to the authorities or talking to loss prevention is not the best course of action because that will often lead to a completed investigation and charges being filed against the person.
