Recent corporate scandals have demonstrated on a grand scale the potentially disastrous consequences of fraud. Individuals, corporations, the state itself: all are possible targets of fraud, while none are immune to its effects. Small wonder, then, that around the world courts and legislatures are uniting in a bid to stamp out fraud in all spheres of life.
In the UK, Kate Hurford, at Herbert Smith, reports that the Home Office is seeking comments on proposals for a radical rethink of the law on fraud. Currently, defendants in fraud cases can often get off on technicalities since the deception offences on the statute books are overly specific. The Government aims to close these loopholes by establishing a general offence of fraud that would cast the legislative net wider to encompass other kinds of deceitful conduct.
