590                              Laws of Maryland                      [Ch. 181

County, Prince George's County, St. Mary's County, Carroll County,
Queen Anne's County, Washington County, Worcester County, Talbot
County, Wicomico County, Dorchester County and Kent County; pro-
vided that in Worcester County this section shall also apply to beaches
adjacent to residential riparian property and provided further that
no bonfires shall be built nor allowed to burn on any beach or other
property in Worcester County between the hours of 1:00 o'clock a.m.
and 5:00 o'clock a.m.

§ 134. Fraudulent receipt of consigned property without owner's
consent; liability to owner.

If any person shall purchase or fraudulently receive, without the
consent of the owner or owners of such property, any coal, iron, lum-
ber or other articles of merchandise, or any property whatever, con-
signed to any person in this State, or any other state, or the District
of Columbia, knowing the same to be so consigned, from any captain
of a canal boat, or any other person engaged in transporting the said
property, such purchaser shall be liable to pay such owner or owners
double the value of the property so purchased, to be recovered by civil
action[, before any justice of the peace, or] in any court having
jurisdiction thereof; and the said action may be brought in the
name of either the consignor or consignee.

§ 140. Obtaining money, etc., under false pretenses with intent to
defraud.

Any person who shall by any false pretense obtain from any other
person any chattel, money or valuable security, with intent to defraud
any person of the same, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being
convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be
punished by fine and imprisonment, or by confinement in the peni-
tentiary for not less than two years nor more than ten years, as the
court shall award; provided always, that if upon the trial of any per-
son charged with such misdemeanor it shall be proved that he ob-
tained the property in question in any such manner as to amount in
law to larceny or robbery, he shall not by reason thereof be entitled to
be acquitted of such misdemeanor; and no person tried upon such mis-
demeanor shall be afterwards liable for larceny or robbery upon the
same facts; and provided also, that a mere promise to be prosecuted
for future payment, though not intended to be performed, shall not
be sufficient to authorize a conviction under this section. [In Wicomico
County, St. Mary's County, Worcester County, Caroline County,
Prince George's County, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County
where the amount of money or the value of the thing received does not
exceed three hundred dollars ($300.00), the people's court and the trial
magistrates, respectively, shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the
circuit court to try persons charged with violating this section and
§§ 142 and 144 of this article, provided that persons so convicted in
the people's court or trial magistrate's court shall not be sentenced to
the penitentiary by that court. In Baltimore City where the amount
of money or the value of the thing received does not exceed five hun-
dred dollars ($500.00), the Municipal Court of Baltimore City shall
have jurisdiction to try persons charged with violating this section,
provided that persons so convicted in the Municipal Court shall not
be sentenced to the penitentiary by that court.]