New anti-fraud legislation, The Fraud Act 2006, has come into force in England and Wales. The new law aims to close a number of loopholes in preceding anti-fraud legislation, which the UK Government said was unsuited to modern fraud.Until now there has been no single, general fraud law in English law, but an untidy mess of eight specific statutory crimes, such as 'obtaining property by deception,' and a vague common law offence of 'conspiracy to defraud'.
The Fraud Act introduces a general offence of fraud which can be committed by false representation, by failing to disclose information or by abuse of position. The offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.
The new act will be one of the topics under discussion during the forthcoming Fraud Risk Reduction and Detection Course, 16-18 July 2007.
