Despite the fact that high school and higher students practice information technology all the time, the crime of using a false ID is fairly serious. Whether yous are using a faux ID to get into a concert, buy alcohol, or otherwise misrepresent your age or identity, you could be request for major criminal penalties.

Information technology is impossible for the police force to monitor every bar and liquor store in the country, so the vast majority of false ID uses get undetected and unpunished. However, this makes things all the more hard for the ones who are caught.

Contents

  1. What Is the Punishment for Using a Simulated ID?
  2. Can the Punishments Increment?
  3. Practise I Need a Lawyer?

What Is the Punishment for Using a Fake ID?

Assuming that the ID in question is non for falsifying your citizenship (which is much more serious and would delve into the realm of illegal aliens/terrorism), the law generally punishes the conduct of misrepresenting your identity in two ways: beginning is the use of the imitation identification (or real identification that does not belong to yous) to falsely identify yourself, and the 2nd is the tampering or falsification of an actual identification card.

  • Using a Fake ID: You can exist prosecuted for a number of different crimes for using fake identification. Since these laws are regulated by country, every state will accept its own punishments. These penalties can run the gamut from being a simple $500 misdemeanor in some states, to being considered criminal impersonation or forgery, both felonies punishable by up to a twelvemonth and a half in state prison.  If the ID is used to purchase a firearm, its a felony in every country, and can get you lot up to 7 years in prison house.
  • Modifying a Real ID: If you have also actually tampered with a real identification card, you could be charged with another crime like tampering with a public record, or altering government documents. This punishes the act of altering or irresolute an officially issued piece of documentation like a driver'southward license, and is an fifty-fifty more serious felony in most states.  In New York, for example, information technology is punishable by up to 7 years in prison.

Information technology should also be noted that, even without using any kind of fake ID, the mere act of attempting to purchase alcohol is a crime if you are a minor (generally the lowest form of misdemeanor, significant a fine), and that all of the crimes listed above volition as well result in the suspension of a drivers license, from anywhere between ninety to 180 days.

Although this may seem like a scrap of an oxymoron, if yous are over 18 you are accounted an adult for punishment purposes (even though you are not an adult for alcoholic purposes). Therefore you can become the total range of punishment (i.e. years in prison), whereas minors (under 18) volition generally only become community service and probation.

Tin the Punishments Increase?

They can and will.  The judge and/or prosecutor take a lot of discretion as to what to charge you with, and so if yous arrested for using a fake ID multiple times, they can really throw the book at y'all. Too, with the current abundance of identify theft rings, if you are using someone else's existent ID there are many new (and very harsh) laws that you lot can exist prosecuted under. On the other paw, if someone gave you their legitimate ID to use, then that person too can be arrested for a class ane misdemeanor, and face fines and up to a twelvemonth in jail.

Finally, there are laws in several states that also allow civil reparations from bars or liquor stores against minors who try to use a fake ID. Alaska, for example, allows an establishment to confiscate the ID and sue the minor for $ane,000 per effort. This is in addition to being able to detain you for abort, and whatever other penalities follow from that.

Do I Demand a Lawyer?

Using a fake ID may seem like a rite of passage for many, and the crime's abundance may make it seem victim-less. Just for the people who are defenseless, the punishments tin can be severe and plush. A conviction can permanently affect your tape and your chances of getting into higher or finding a good job. That'southward why you need an experienced juvenile attorney who can tell you lot how to minimize your judgement, explain your rights, and perchance go the conviction expunged from your tape.