Grand theft auto, also referred to as “GTA,” vehicle theft and just auto theft, is the unauthorized taking of another’s car with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the car.  It may be by force, trick or false pretenses.  Sometimes, the suspect takes the car to a “chop shop” to have the car disassembled for money or the suspect intentionally fails to return a rental car.

    It can be filed as a misdemeanor or as a felony, depending upon the circumstances, the value of the car and the defendant’s prior criminal record.  Most commonly, it is filed as a felony as a violation of Penal Code § 487(d)(1), however it sometimes filed as a violation of Vehicle Code § 18851 (unlawful taking of a vehicle, including Joyriding).

    Regardless of whether the car is valued at $500 or $50,000, the theft of a car is always filed at grand theft auto.  In other words, there is no such thing as “petty theft auto,” even if the value of the car is below $950, the statutory limit between grand theft and petty theft for most other items (this does not include firearms and certain farm animals). 

However, if the value of the car exceeds $65,000, the client faces an additional year of prison time if convicted.  If the car’s value exceeds $200,000, the client faces an additional two years in prison (Penal Code § 12022.6).

Without these sentencing enhancements, one convicted of misdemeanor grand theft auto faces a maximum one year sentence in county jail.  If the client is convicted of felony grand theft auto, he or she faces a minimum of sixteen months and a maximum of three years in state prison.
   
The defenses to grand theft auto begin with consent of the owner.  This can be a tough defense to assert because the owner is most often the person who calls police to begin the case. Usually, the police, before going to the trouble of investigating further, make sure that the owner’s permission was never given for the client to take the car.  However, the client may argue or believe that because the owner gave the client permission to use the car in the past, such permission continued.

The second most common defense revolves around intent.  If one did not intend to permanently deprive the owner of the car, the crime may be simply joyriding.

    Grand theft auto often is charged in conjunction with other crimes.  These can be carjacking (Penal Code § 215), burglary (Penal Code § 459) and robbery (Penal Code § 211), so understanding the defenses to these similar, yet distinguishable crimes, can be important towards reaching a plea bargain that the client can accept.