Maryland Criminal Defense · Theft & Property

Theft Scheme in Maryland: How Prosecutors Stack Small Thefts Into a Single Felony Under § 7-103(f)

You were braced for a misdemeanor. You were charged with a felony — built out of incidents that were never felonies on their own.

By Amir Guerami, Esq. · The Guerami Law Firm, LLC

You were braced for a misdemeanor. What arrived instead was a felony, and a dollar figure you do not recognize — a total larger than any single thing you are accused of taking.

That gap between what you expected and what you were charged with has a name in Maryland practice. It is called aggregation, and it lives in one subsection of the theft statute that most defendants have never heard of until the day it is used against them.

This is how it works, what the State actually has to prove to use it, and where these cases are genuinely fought.

The Statute

One Sentence in the Theft Law That Turns Six Misdemeanors Into One Felony

Maryland consolidated its old larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses, and shoplifting offenses into a single general theft statute at Md. Code, Crim. Law § 7-104. How much time you face depends entirely on value.

But the rule that decides which value applies sits one section earlier. Md. Code, Crim. Law § 7-103(f) provides that when theft is committed under one scheme or continuing course of conduct — whether the property came from the same source or several different sources — the conduct may be considered one crime, and the values may be added together to determine whether the theft is a felony or a misdemeanor.

Read that again, because it is the whole ballgame. The State does not have to prove you took $1,500 at once. It has to prove you took $1,500 across connected acts.

Here is what those tiers look like under § 7-104:

• Less than $100 — Misdemeanor. Up to 90 days and a fine up to $500.

• At least $100 but less than $1,500 — Misdemeanor. Up to 6 months for a first offense; up to 1 year with a prior theft conviction.

• At least $1,500 but less than $25,000 — Felony. Up to 5 years and a fine up to $10,000.

• At least $25,000 but less than $100,000 — Felony. Up to 10 years and a fine up to $15,000.

• $100,000 or more — Felony. Up to 20 years and a fine up to $25,000.

Six alleged incidents of $300 each are, individually, six offenses in the lowest and second-lowest tiers. Aggregated, they are one $1,800 felony — and the exposure jumps from months to years. Restitution can be ordered on top of any sentence, and it survives the case long after the docket closes.

The State does not have to prove you took $1,500 at once. It has to prove you took $1,500 across connected acts.

Venue

Different Counties, One Case

There is a second surprise built into Maryland's theft law. When multiple thefts are committed by the same person as part of one scheme or continuing course of conduct across several counties, they can be joined and prosecuted together in any one county where one of the thefts occurred.

Defendants routinely assume that incidents in Baltimore County, Howard County, and Anne Arundel County are three separate problems with three separate outcomes. Under an aggregation theory, they can become one indictment in one courthouse — with one combined value driving the charge.

The Insider Lens

What Prosecutors Actually Look At Before They Stack

When I was the one filing these charges, aggregation was never automatic. It was a judgment call, and it was made early.

First, I looked for a pattern I could describe in one sentence. Same method. Same target. Same access point. A defined window of time. If I could stand up and say "this was one plan, executed repeatedly," I charged it as one crime. Juries understand a scheme. They do not understand a spreadsheet.

Second, I weighed the risk of the theory failing. This is the part defendants almost never appreciate. Aggregation is not free for the State. If the scheme theory falls apart — if the incidents turn out to be separate decisions, made independently, by different means, months apart — the felony does not shrink gracefully. It fractures. And what is left may be a handful of small charges, some of which cannot be proven on their own at all.

Third, I looked at the documentation. Theft scheme cases are built on records: register audits, inventory reconciliations, bank statements, timecards, badge logs, surveillance footage. A thick file is persuasive. It is not the same thing as proof.

Fourth, I looked for the defendant's own words. Nothing strengthens a scheme theory like a statement — from an internal HR interview, a text message, or a conversation with a detective — in which the accused concedes even one incident.

★Leverage Point

Aggregation is a legal theory the State must support — not arithmetic it gets to perform.

• The State must prove a single, connected scheme or continuing course of conduct.

• If the scheme theory fails, the felony does not shrink — it fractures into separate, smaller charges.

• Separate decisions, separately formed, by different means, are separate crimes.

• Moving a proven total below $1,500 converts a felony into a misdemeanor.

The Evidence

Records Are Not the Same as Proof

This is where these cases are actually won and lost.

An employer's loss report says $6,400 is missing over eight months. That number is a business conclusion, not a criminal finding. To use it, the State has to connect specific dollars to specific acts, and specific acts to you.

The gaps are frequently enormous:

• Shortfalls that reflect accounting error, spoilage, vendor discrepancies, or theft by someone else entirely.

• Registers, keys, codes, or inventory areas accessible to multiple employees.

• Dates included in the total on which you were not even scheduled.

• Items valued at retail price rather than fair market value at the time of the alleged taking, which is what Maryland law actually requires.

• Incidents pulled into the "scheme" that share nothing with the others but the same defendant.

Every one of those is a reduction in the total. And in an aggregation case, the total is the charge. Move it below $1,500 and the felony becomes a misdemeanor. Move it below $25,000 and the maximum drops from ten years to five.

A thick file is persuasive. It is not the same thing as proof that any particular dollar left because of you.

Costly Errors

The Mistakes That Build the State's Scheme For It

!Do Not Do These Things

Each of these is a reasonable-sounding move that hands the State the pattern it needs.

• Do not sit for the internal investigation. When an employer's loss prevention team or HR asks you to come in and explain, you are not in a private conversation. Those notes, statements, and signed acknowledgments regularly end up in the State's file. Your job is likely already gone; your case does not have to follow it.

• Do not admit to "just one" incident. This is the single most damaging mistake in an aggregation case. Conceding two incidents does not limit you to two incidents. It gives the State the pattern it needs to argue the other six were part of the same plan.

• Do not sign anything. Civil demand letters from retailers, restitution agreements, promissory notes, and written apologies are all discoverable. A written apology is an admission with your signature on it.

• Do not repay on your own initiative. Reimbursement can genuinely help at the right stage, structured the right way, through counsel. Handled unilaterally before charges resolve, it can be argued as consciousness of guilt.

!Before You Explain Anything

If a detective, a loss prevention investigator, or a former employer contacts you about a theft allegation, do not try to clear it up yourself. Speak with a Maryland criminal defense lawyer first. There is no version of that conversation that improves your position.

The Defense

What a Real Defense Looks Like

A serious theft scheme defense is not a plea for mercy at sentencing. It is a sequence of specific attacks, run in order:

• Break the scheme. Force the State to prove a single, connected course of conduct rather than a collection of unrelated events. Different methods, different locations, long gaps in time, and independently formed intent all cut against aggregation. If the scheme fails, the felony fails with it.

• Audit the arithmetic. Demand the documentary basis for every dollar in the total. Estimates, rounded figures, and unexplained shortfalls do not survive scrutiny.

• Challenge valuation. Value in Maryland means fair market value at the time and place of the offense — depreciated, used-condition value. Not the price tag. Not replacement cost.

• Isolate access. If four other people had the same key, the same code, or the same drawer, the State's exclusive-opportunity theory weakens on every incident.

• Test how the evidence was gathered. Searches, seizures, device extractions, and custodial statements are all subject to challenge. Suppression resolves more theft cases before trial than most defendants expect.

• Position the disposition. Where the facts and record support it, the objective may be probation before judgment.

★Why a Theft Conviction Is Different

A theft conviction is a crime of dishonesty. It is treated differently by employers, licensing boards, and background checks than almost any other offense.

• Probation before judgment (PBJ) strikes the guilty finding and places you on probation instead of entering a conviction.

• It is discretionary — it depends on the facts, your record, and the county.

• It is not an acquittal, and no lawyer can promise it.

• In theft cases it matters more than in almost any other misdemeanor, precisely because of what a dishonesty conviction does to a career.

The Bottom Line

The Total Is a Theory

The number on your charging document was not found by a judge or a jury. It was assembled by the State from records, inferences, and a decision that a series of separate events amounted to one plan.

That decision is arguable. The arithmetic behind it is checkable. The valuation is challengeable.

The difference between winning those arguments and accepting the number as written can be the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony that follows you for the rest of your working life.

Someone has to make the State prove it.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Maryland law changes, and every case turns on its own facts. If you or someone you love has been charged, speak with a Maryland criminal defense attorney about your specific situation before making any decisions.

Charged in Maryland?

If you have been charged with a crime or a serious traffic offense in Maryland, do not plead until you have spoken to a lawyer who has stood on both sides of the courtroom. Contact The Guerami Law Firm, LLC through NoPleaMD.com for a confidential consultation with Amir Guerami and his team.

The Guerami Law Firm, LLC NoPleaMD.com