Cheating The Public Revenue (Common Law)

Date produced: 5 July 2011
Title: Financial crime
Offence: Cheating the public revenue
Legislation: Common Law
Commencement date: N/A
Mode of Trial: Indictable Only
Statutory Limitations & Maximum Penalty: Unlimited custody or fine

Aggravating and Mitigating Factors

• The amount involved
• The use to which money was put (spending on luxuries more venal than on necessities)
• Breach of position trust, such as by employee, director or trustee
• Elderly or vulnerable victim
• Extent of loss - intended and actual
• Extent of gain - intended and actual
• The period over which and the persistence with which the fraud was carried out
• Guilty Plea
• Voluntary repayments
• Personal factors such as illness, disability, family difficulties, etc

Relevant Sentencing Council Guideline (if any)

Fraud guidelines do not apply to offence of cheating the public revenue

Relevant sentencing Guidelines (If any)

R v Regan [1989] 11 Cr. App. R. (S) 15

R and others were convicted of conspiring to cheat the public revenue.  They had played various roles in one or two conspiracies in the course of which tobacco was bought in Belgium and imported in lorries.  A total of 44 trips were made and the total loss to the revenue was about 1.5 million.  Sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from 6 years to 18 months.  A sentence of 6 years was upheld despite the fact that the maximum for the substantive offence was only 2 years

AG's Reference (Nos.88,89,90 and 91 of 2006 (R v Meehan) [2007] Cr.App.R. (S) 28

For the organisers of large scale frauds involving a loss to the public of well in excess of 1 million sentences substantially in excess of the statutory maximum for the substantive evasion of excise duty (i.e well into double figures) will be appropriate; for those who were genuine companies who lent themselves to the fraud as 'buffer companies' the appropriate starting point was  6 to 8 years.

Relevant Sentencing Case Law

None

Ancillary Orders

(Archbold paragraph references in brackets)

• Compensation Orders: (5-411)
• Deprivation Orders: (5-439)
• Disqualification from acting as a Company Director: (5-851)
• Financial Reporting Orders: (5-886)
  

Consider Also

• Confiscation
• Offence should be reserved for the most serious  and unusual offences where a sentence in excess of the statutory maximum would be appropriate
• Attorney General's Guidelines on plea discussions in cases of serious or complex fraud
• Archbold 25-409

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