2021 New York Laws
PEN - Penal
Part 3 - Specific Offenses
Title J - Offenses Involving Theft
Article 165 - Other Offenses Relating to Theft
165.16 - Unauthorized Sale of Certain Transportation Services.

§ 165.16 Unauthorized sale of certain transportation services.
  1.  A  person is guilty of unauthorized sale of certain transportation
services when, with intent to avoid payment by  another  person  to  the
metropolitan  transportation  authority, New York city transit authority
or a subsidiary or affiliate of either  such  authority  of  the  lawful
charge  for  transportation  services on a railroad, subway, bus or mass
transit service operated by either such authority  or  a  subsidiary  or
affiliate  thereof,  he  or  she, in exchange for value, sells access to
such transportation services  to  such  person,  without  authorization,
through  the  use  of  an  unlimited farecard or doctored farecard. This
section shall apply only to such sales that occur  in  a  transportation
facility,  as  such term is defined in subdivision two of section 240.00
of this chapter, operated by such metropolitan transportation authority,
New York city transit authority  or  subsidiary  or  affiliate  of  such
authority, when public notice of the prohibitions of its section and the
exemptions   thereto   appears  on  the  face  of  the  farecard  or  is
conspicuously posted  in  transportation  facilities  operated  by  such
metropolitan  transportation  authority, New York city transit authority
or such subsidiary or affiliate of such authority.
  2. It shall be a defense to a prosecution under this  section  that  a
person,  firm,  partnership,  corporation, or association: (a) selling a
farecard containing value, other than a doctored farecard,  relinquished
all  rights and privileges thereto upon consummation of the sale; or (b)
sold access to transportation services through the use  of  a  farecard,
other  than  a doctored farecard, when such sale was made at the request
of the purchaser as an accommodation to the purchaser at a time  when  a
farecard  was  not  immediately  available  to  the purchaser, provided,
however, that the seller lawfully acquired the farecard and did not,  by
means  of  an  unlawful act, contribute to the circumstances that caused
the purchaser to make such request.
  3. For purposes of this section:
  (a)  "farecard"  means  a  value-based,  magnetically   encoded   card
containing  stored monetary value from which a specified amount of value
is deducted as payment of a fare;
  (b)  "unlimited  farecard"  means  a  farecard  that  is   time-based,
magnetically  encoded  and which permits entrance an unlimited number of
times into facilities and conveyances for a specified  period  of  time;
and
  (c)  "doctored  farecard"  means  a  farecard  that  has  been bent or
manipulated or  altered  so  as  to  facilitate  a  person's  access  to
transportation services without paying the lawful charge.
  Unauthorized sale of transportation service is a class B misdemeanor.