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Question:

If I have the permission to forge a person's signature on a check, is that considered a crime?



Answer: Yes it is. The relevant statute is A.R.S. § 13-2002(A)(3) where it states "A person commits forgery if, with intent to defraud, the person offers or presents, whether accepted or not, a forged instrument or one that contains false information." Now you mayhave permission to forge the person's signature, but possessing the document with the forged signature could be deemed an offense if it could be shown that you intended to defraud someone. For example, if you were to present a check forged by you to a bank for deposit, you are essentially saying the signature on the document is that of the person to whom the check was issued. Essentially you have the intent to fool, trick or basically defraud the bank. It does not necessarily have to be done with the intent for financial gain, where you are receiving the money to be deposited.

Comments
1 thru 2 of 2 comments
On 03/30/09
Kevin from FL said:
What about if the car is mine but registered and everything under my dads name and one of my friends wanted to trade his car for my car and my dad said well it's your car you can do what you want with it just sign my name. what about something like that, i paid for the car and everything but just registered it and titled it in my dads name cause it was cheaper?
On 02/03/08
Britt from AZ said:
YES!!! Any thing you have to ask for because you dont't know if it is ok or not is probably not a good thing. If that person finds out that you did that they cold get you into some serious trouble.
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