Florida theft penalties, graded by value, straight from the statute.

The theft penalty ladder, by value band

Under Fla. Stat. § 812.014, the value of the property sets the grade. Theft of property valued at less than $750 is petit theft, a misdemeanor; at $750 or more it is grand theft, a felony, graded into three degrees by higher value bands. The degree sets the statutory ceiling; the sentence in a given case sits below it and turns on the facts, the prior record, and the scoresheet.

Offense, value band, and degree quoted from Fla. Stat. § 812.014 (Florida Legislature, Online Sunshine); the maximum prison term and fine follow from the offense degree under Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083. The statutes control; confirm the current text and the specific value and property type before relying on any figure.

Where the felony line is: petit theft vs. grand theft

The line between misdemeanor and felony theft is the value of the property. Under Fla. Stat. § 812.014, theft of property valued at $100 to under $750 is misdemeanor of the first degree (up to 1 year of imprisonment, a fine of up to $1,000), and theft of property valued at under $100 is misdemeanor of the second degree (up to 60 days of imprisonment, a fine of up to $500). Once the value reaches $750, the charge crosses into grand theft, a felony. A prior theft conviction can also raise a petit theft to the next level, so the record matters alongside the amount.

How grand theft is graded by value

Above the $750 felony line, grand theft is graded into three degrees by higher value bands. Under Fla. Stat. § 812.014, theft of property valued at $750 to under $20,000 is felony of the third degree (up to 5 years of prison, a fine of up to $5,000); theft of property valued at $20,000 to under $100,000 is felony of the second degree (up to 15 years of prison, a fine of up to $10,000); and theft of property valued at $100,000 or more is felony of the first degree (up to 30 years of prison, a fine of up to $10,000). The statute also grades certain specific property types, such as a firearm or a motor vehicle, as grand theft regardless of value, so the exact charge has to be confirmed against the statute rather than assumed from the dollar amount alone.

Robbery is a separate, harsher offense

Theft under Fla. Stat. § 812.014 is a taking without force. When a taking uses force, violence, assault, or putting the victim in fear, it is robbery, charged under Fla. Stat. § 812.13, a separate and harsher violent felony. This guide covers theft only; a robbery charge is analyzed under its own statute and its own penalty structure, which are not computed here. Enhancements can also change a theft charge, including a prior theft conviction and the specific type of property taken, and those are analyzed on their own terms.

The scoresheet sets the floor within the maximum

For a felony grand theft, the statutory maximum is the ceiling, not the sentence. Florida's Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet sets the lowest permissible sentence from the offense severity level, the prior record, and any enhancements, and the court sentences within the range that runs from that floor up to the statutory maximum. For how the scoresheet is built, see the free Florida scoresheet calculator. A grand theft charge's exposure is the combination of the statutory maximum above and the scoresheet floor.

What the aggregate sentencing data shows

Read the figure below as descriptive, not predictive. It is a statewide rate across all charge types, not theft alone, and is a floor over recorded sentences. These figures are not adjusted for offense severity, criminal history, plea posture, or case facts, they do not measure any prosecutor, court, or judge, and they are not a prediction of what any theft case will draw. Counties differ in case mix, so the figure reflects what and who is in the data.

The statute sets the exposure; the public records show how sentences actually landed. In the FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency Clerk-of-Court data, across 3,937,598 analyzed charge dispositions, 44% drew a recorded jail or prison sentence. That is a floor, not a true rate, because the confinement field is blank on many charges and is treated as non-incarceration. It spans every charge type, so it orients rather than predicts; the companion data study breaks the recorded incarceration rate and confinement length down by charge category and county.

The stop and the search start with the officer

Whatever the statutory exposure, a theft case usually turns on how the stop was made, whether the search was lawful, and how the identification was handled. Before the penalty conversation, the leverage is often in the stop, the search, and the officer. BenchRecon's Officer Lookup searches the arresting officer's Florida FDLE/CJSTC certification-discipline and incident-ledger record, every row cited to the underlying public record, so the impeachment and suppression angles surface before you draft the motion.

Reference

For the Chapter 812 theft and robbery statutes, source-linked to the official text, see the Florida theft & robbery statute reference. For how sentences actually landed across the state, see the Florida sentencing-outcomes data study. For the full set of Florida charge references, start at the Florida criminal-defense references hub.