The defendant appeals from her conviction of theft by deception (Code § 26-1803) under an accusation and supporting evidence that she persuaded a local grocer to let her have groceries worth $47.86 upon her promise to pay for them on the following Friday, which promise she failed to keep.
The gravamen of Code § 26-1803 (a) lies in obtaining the' property of another by intentionally creating a false impression as to an existing fact or past event. Creating a false impression as to a future event, particularly, in this case, by a promise of future payment, is not sufficient. “The evidence here shows that the appellant offered to pay in the future for goods to be delivered in the present,” whereupon “[t]he sole ‘interest’ that the merchants had in the goods was a right to future payment pursuant to the sales contract.”
Elliott v. State,
Judgment reversed.