Property offences (Stealing and Criminal damage)

Statutory definition of fraud and the diffferent types

Fraud Act 2006 s1

(1) A person is guilty of fraud if he is in breach of any of the sections

listed in subsection (2) (which provide for different ways of committing

the offence).

(2) The sections are—

(a) section 2 (fraud by false representation),

(b) section 3 (fraud by failing to disclose information), and

(c) section 4 (fraud by abuse of position)

Fraud act section 2: Fraud by false representation

Fraud Act 2006 s2(a) states a representation is false if it is:

(a)Untrue or misleading; or

(b)the person making it knows that it is, or might be,

untrue or misleading. (mens rea)

(3) ‘Representation’ means any representation as to fact or law,

including a representation as to the state of mind of—

(a) the person making the representation, or

(b) any other person.

(4) A representation may be express or implied

Bernard (1837) 7 C&P 784 Implied fraud: wearing a cap or gown pretending to be an Oxford student.

Fraud act section 3: Fraud by failing to disclose information

a) D dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, and (b) intends, by failing to disclose the information – (i) to make a gain for himself or another, or (ii) to cause loss to another or expose another to the risk of loss.

Fraud act section 4: Fraud by abuse of power

(1)(a) D occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person, (b) dishonestly abuses that position, and (c) intends, by means of the abuse of that position - (i) to make a gain for himself or another, or (ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

Identifying a ‘position’

No legal definition. Broadly interpreted.

DPP v. Valujevs [2014] EWCA Crim 2888

D exploited agricultural workers by collecting their wages and then withholding wages and making deductions, charging inflated rents, and withholding work to induce debt.

But note recent decision in COL v DPP [2022] EWHC 601 where court held that employer can occupy ‘a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person.’

Abuse of position

Question of fact for the jury to consider. Broadly interpreted. Pennock and Pennock [2014] EWCA Crim 598 Abuse can be difficult to establish and can result in inconsistent outcomes: a couple opened a joint account with an elderly relative and transferred £100,000 of his money into it. The couple then used this money towards the purchase of a house for their daughter. The couple were convicted of fraud under s.4 but the conviction was subsequently deemed unsafe due to unclear direction by the judge on the applicable civil law.

Statutory definition of theft: Theft act 1968

Elements of theft: Appropriation

s3 of the Theft act 1968

‘any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as an owner’

Morris[1984]->any appropriation is sufficient

Individuals swapped expensive tags on items in a supermarket for lower priced ones, therefore paying less.

->interfering with the right of the owners o the supermarket to price their own goods

=Touching; destroying;alienating(giving away to another person); selling;offering for sale