Rada decriminalizes petty thefts up to UAH 3028

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted in general the draft law No. 11068, which regulates administrative liability for petty theft of property, decriminalizing petty thefts of up to UAH 3,028. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Bohdan Drapyaty and MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, UNN reports.

Details

"The law aims to establish a fairer and more proportionate response for petty theft," Drapyatyi said.

"According to the MP, 243 MPs voted in favor of the bill as a whole.

According to Zheleznyak, since the theft of up to UAH 300 is currently a criminal offense, the draft law raises the threshold to UAH 3,000 and also increases administrative liability for petty theft: for theft of up to UAH 757, a fine of 850 to 1,700; for theft of UAH 758 to 3,028, a fine of 1,700 to 5,100; for repeated theft, a fine of 8,500 to 17,000.

Thus, according to the Deputy Minister, the draft law is proposed in general:

Increase the minimum threshold for distinguishing between administrative and criminal liability for theft, fraud, misappropriation or embezzlement by 10 times (from 0.2 to 2 tax-free minimum incomes, namely from UAH 302.80 to UAH 3,028).

Introduction of a new construction of Article 51 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provides:

• delineation of liability depending on the amount of stolen goods;
• introducing liability for repeated petty theft;
• introducing liability for systematic (three or more times) petty theft.

It is prohibited to close cases of repeated and systematic petty theft (parts 3 and 4 of Article 51 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) due to the insignificance of the offense (Article 22 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

The term for imposing an administrative penalty for petty theft is increased to 6 months (currently 3 months).

The courts will consider petty theft cases without the mandatory presence of a person and within 15 days (currently 5 days).