Fraud is a generally used to describe an act of deception that is intended to result in personal gain or to cause a loss to another person and can be defined as a type of larceny (theft). There are several different offences which fall under the definition of fraud, including:

  • Corporate fraud (sometimes referred to white-collar crime)
  • Embezzlement
  • Money laundering
  • Identity theft
  • Bribery
  • Tax evasion
  • Credit card fraud
  • Employee fraud
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The offence of Fraud 

Under section 192E of the Crimes Act, a person who ‘by deception, dishonestly obtains property belonging to another or obtains any financial advantage or causes any financial disadvantage’ is guilty of committing an offence, with the maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

Given the operation of this section, it is important to understand the meaning of ‘obtaining financial advantage’ and ‘causing financial disadvantage’.

Obtaining a financial advantage includes actions done for oneself or another person; inducing a third person to do something that results in oneself or another person obtaining a financial advantage; and keeping a financial advantage that one has, whether the advantage is permanent or temporary.

Causing a financial disadvantage means can either be a direct disadvantage to another person or inducing a third person to do something that results in another person suffering a financial disadvantage, whether the financial disadvantage is permanent or temporary.

In addition to the NSW offences, there is a range of other fraud offences contained in the Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995.

‘General Dishonesty’ is an offence where a person attempts to make a personal gain through dishonesty against a commonwealth entity. This includes Centrelink fraud, that is in circumstances where an individual is claiming benefits that they are not entitled to or claiming benefits in a false name. The maximum penalty for this offence is 10 years imprisonment.

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Written By
James Janke
James Janke

James Janke is founding partner at Hamilton Janke Lawyers, and has more then decade of experience as a Criminal Defence Lawyer. Admitted to both the Supreme Court of New South Wales and High Court of Australia