Every person who, with intent to defraud, alters, forges, counterfeits, or falsifies any certificate of title, registration card, certificate, registration decal, or permit provided for by this part or any comparable certificate of title, registration card, certificate, decal, insignia, or label, with intent to represent it as issued by the department or who alters, forges, counterfeits, or falsifies with fraudulent intent any endorsement of transfer on a certificate of title, or who with fraudulent intent displays or causes or permits to be displayed or has in his or her possession any blank, incomplete, canceled, suspended, revoked, altered, forged, counterfeit, or false certificate of title, registration card, certificate, registration decal, or permit or who utters, publishes, passes, or attempts to pass, as true and genuine, any of the above-named false, altered, forged, or counterfeited matters knowing it to be false, altered, forged, or counterfeited with intent to prejudice, damage, or defraud any person, or who, with fraudulent intent, provides false information regarding an allegedly lost, stolen, damaged, or otherwise unavailable certificate of ownership, certificate of title, registration card, or statement of lien, is guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code, or in a county jail for not more than one year.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 186. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.)