Three Criminal Charges That You May Face After Setting Fire To Something
The average person isn't apt to burn down his or her home or business in order to cash in on the insurance money, but it may be tempting to think about setting a fire on a smaller scale during a moment of poor judgement. For example, perhaps you have a car, boat, or even a shed that is past its prime and you're struggling financially. Despite knowing that setting fire to it is wrong, you may be so eager to get some money that you make this serious error in judgment. There's a considerable probability that you'll soon get arrested, and you may end up facing a series of charges for which you'll need help from a criminal defense attorney. Here are three charges that you may be looking at.
Arson
First and foremost, you'll almost certainly be looking at a charge of arson in the wake of your bad decision. While you might be quick to deny responsibility and suggest that you have no idea how the fire started, the police department has trained arson investigators who can often reveal not only that someone intentionally set the fire, but also who was behind this act. An arson charge is very serious, even if you felt that this act was minor because it didn't involve a large structure.
Insurance Fraud
Unfortunately for you, an arson charge is unlikely to be the only criminal charge that you face in the wake of this incident. Because you may have set the fire in order to collect the insurance money, you were attempting to defraud your insurance provider. This means that the police are likely to charge you with insurance fraud, which will be yet another charge for your criminal defense attorney to defend you against. Regardless of how your legal proceedings go, you can also expect your insurance provider to drop you as a client, and it may then be difficult to get insurance from another company.
Endangerment
Law enforcement views acts of arson extremely seriously, which means that the police may be eager to lay additional charges on you. One other charge that you might face is a charge of endangerment. This charge is broad and can apply to your situation in a number of ways. For example, if you set fire to something that was situated near someone else's property, the police may charge you with endangerment because the fire could have spread to the other property and potentially either burned down a house or even harmed or killed the residents of the property.
For more information, contact local criminal defense lawyer services.
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