STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2041

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2076

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2076 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNLICENSED CONTRACTOR FRAUD,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify that the intent to deprive another of property, under the offense of unlicensed contractor fraud, may be formed before or after a person obtains or exerts control over the property of another.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Regulated Industries Complaints Office of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, City and County of Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, and Contractors License Board.

 

     Your Committee finds that under existing law, the offense of unlicensed contractor fraud requires a person's intent to deprive to exist while engaged in unlicensed contractor activities.  However, the law is unclear whether that intent must also exist before that person obtains control over a victim's property.

 

     Your Committee further finds that this measure removes this ambiguity by clarifying that the intent to deprive may be formed before or after a person obtains control over the victim's property, provided that the person is engaged in unlicensed contractor activities at that time.  Your Committee additionally finds that this measure will assist law enforcement efforts to prosecute the offense of unlicensed contractor fraud.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2076 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair