Belnick

The People charged Reuben Belnick with nine counts of reporting or registering of a fictitious employer, employee and of wages in *1451 order to obtain unemployment benefits in violation of section 2114 of the Unemployment Insurance Code 1 and three counts of forgery, utterance of a legal instrument and falsification of records in violation of section 470 (forgery) of the Penal Code. The court denied Belnick’s motion to dismiss on grounds the 10-day notice requirement of section 2113 was not given before the complaint was filed. The parties then stipulated to the facts underlying count two: In April of 1983, Belnick registered a fictitious employer with the Employment Development Department (Department) (§ 133); he also registered himself as employee and as a recipient of fictitious wages making him eligible for benefits under the code which he eventually collected in excess of $400. Following appropriate waivers, the judge, based on the stipulated facts, found Belnick guilty of count two, violating section 2114, and sentenced him to a middle term of two years in prison. The court, pursuant to the stipulation, found him not guilty of the remaining counts.

Appealing,…