State v. Everrette, ___ N.C. App. ___, 807 S.E.2d 168 (Nov. 7, 2017)

An indictment charging obtaining property by false pretenses was defective where it charged the defendant with obtaining an unspecified amount of “credit” secured through the issuance of an unidentified “loan” or “credit card.” This vague language failed to describe what was obtained with sufficient particularity to enable the defendant to adequately prepare a defense. A grand jury indicted the defendant on three counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. The indictment for the first count charged that the defendant “obtain[ed] credit, from Weyco.” The indictments for the second and third counts charged that the defendant “obtain[ed] credit, from Weyco” and that “this property was obtained by means of giving false information on an application for a loan so as to qualify for said loan which loan was made to defendant.” The court concluded:

[I]ndictments charging a defendant with obtaining “credit” of an unspecified amount, secured through two unidentified “loan[s]” and a “credit card” are too vague and uncertain to describe with reasonable certainty what was allegedly obtained, and thus are insufficient to charge the crime of obtaining property by false pretenses. “Credit” is a term less specific than money, and the principle that monetary value must at a minimum be described in an obtaining-property-by-false-pretenses indictment extends logically to our conclusion that credit value must also be described to provide more reasonable certainty of the thing allegedly obtained in order to enable a defendant adequately to mount a defense. Moreover, although the indictments alleged defendant obtained that credit through “loan[s]” and a “credit card,” they lacked basic identifying information, such as the particular loans, their value, or what was loaned; the particular credit card, its value, or what was obtained using that credit card.

It continued:

Because the State sought to prove that defendant obtained by false pretenses a $14,399 secured vehicle loan for the purchase of a Suzuki motorcycle and a $56,736 secured vehicle loan for the purchase of a Dodge truck, the indictments should have, at a minimum, identified these particular loans, described what was loaned, and specified what actual value defendant obtained from those loans. Because the State sought also to prove that defendant obtained the Credit Card by false pretenses, that indictment should have, at a minimum, identified the particular credit card and its account number, its value, and described what defendant obtained using that credit.