BILL NUMBER: AB 880	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Niello

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2009

   An act to amend Section 7027.3 of the Business and Professions
Code, relating to contractors.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 880, as introduced, Niello. Contractors: license fraud penalty.

   Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of
contractors by the Contractor's State License Board within the
Department of Consumer Affairs, and specifies that contractor's
license fraud is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment,
as specified, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
   This bill would raise the maximum fine to $15,000.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 7027.3 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   7027.3.  Any person, licensed or unlicensed, who willfully and
intentionally uses, with intent to defraud, a contractor's license
number that does not correspond to the number on a currently valid
contractor's license held by that person, is punishable by a fine not
exceeding  ten thousand dollars ($10,000)  
fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000)  , or by imprisonment in
state prison, or in county jail for not more than one year, or by
both that fine and imprisonment. The penalty provided by this section
is cumulative to the penalties available under all other laws of
this state. If, upon investigation, the registrar has probable cause
to believe that an unlicensed individual is in violation of this
section, the registrar may issue a citation pursuant to Section
7028.7.