Obtaining Services by Deception
Date produced: 6 July 2011
Title: Financial crime
Offence: Obtaining Services by Deception
Legislation: s.1 Theft Act 1978
Commencement date: This section is repealed as from 15.1.2007 by the FRAUD ACT 2006. However under transitional provisions this section is still applicable to offences where the offence was partly committed before 15 January 2007 - see section 14(2) and schedule 2 of the Fraud Act for detailed provisions.
Mode of Trial: Either Way
Statutory Limitations & Maximum Penalty: Max 5 years
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 Guidelines (If any)
None
Relevant Sentencing Case Law
DE BEER [1997] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 97
Commercial lease agreement
A sentence of 6 years after guilty pleas to 6 counts of obtaining by deception and one of obtaining services by deception was reduced on appeal to 5 years where the appellant had made false representations and thereby obtained 6 commercial lease agreements totalling £1.3 million. A loss of £560,000 over a period of 5 years was sustained by the lending institutions.
HUSSAIN [2002] EWCA CRIM 2324
12 months' imprisonment upheld for offences of obtaining services by deception and procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception which had involved total losses to financial institutions of GBP 95,000. H argued that the sentence should have been suspended in light of serious medical problems suffered by his children. R. v Kefford (Mark James) [2002] EWCA Crim 519 considered.
ADEWUJI [1997] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 254
A sentence of 4 years was upheld following convictions where the appellant had obtained over £100,000 over 4 years by falsely claiming for child benefit, income support and housing benefit. She had pleaded guilty to theft and obtaining services by deception. The Court of Appeal found the frauds to be of exceptional seriousness.
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: (5-886c)
Consider Also
- Confiscation
Links
2007 Archbold 21-341 (Omitted from 2011 edition)
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