Good afternoon / 08.09.08
Corporate Solutions
Corporate Solutions
The Fraud Bill was introduced in to the House of Lords in May 2005. The Bill aims to reform existing statutory offences of deception, as well as revising various offences under the current legislation. As a result all deception offences under the Theft Acts 1968 – 1996 will be abolished.
It is estimated that fraud costs the UK economy about £14 Billion per year. In order to tackle the growing threat of fraud it was determined that existing law required modernisation. As a result in 1998, the then Home Secretary asked the Law Commission to consider whether a general offence of fraud would improve the criminal law. The review showed that there was widespread concern that the current legislation is not fit for the purpose and the Commission concluded that a general fraud offence would improve the criminal law in a number of respects. In their view it would;
The bill sets out provisions for a general offence of fraud with three ways of committing it;
Fraud by false representation – A person commits an offence under this clause if they make a representation, either verbally or in writing, with the intention of making a gain or causing loss or risk to another. The gain or loss does not actually have to take place.
An example of this offence would be if a person uses a credit card to pay for items, which he knows does not have the authority to use. Someone who engages in 'phishing' would also commit this offence, as they are falsely representing themselves as being a legitimate financial institution in order to obtain credit card or bank account information.
Fraud by failing to disclose information - A person commits an offence under this clause then they fail to disclose information to another person where there is a legal duty to do so.
For example, an offence can be committed under this clause if a person deliberately failed to disclose information relating to a serious medical condition when making an application for life insurance.
Fraud by abuse of position - This applies where a person has been put in a privileged position in which they are expected to safeguard another person's financial interests or not act against their interests. They would commit an offence under this clause if they abused this position by acting dishonestly against the other person's financial interests for his personal gain.
Callcredit welcomes any changes to legislation that will work towards combating fraud and continue to support the government's anti-fraud initiatives.
