Fraud is a common law offence in Scotland and it covers a wide variety of activities.
Essentially a fraud will be committed when someone makes a false representation to another in order to gain from that. For example if you steal a chequebook and then try to pay for goods in a shop with a cheque then you will commit a fraud as you are falsely claiming to be the person named on the chequebook.
The refusal of B to give something borrowed from C back to C is not automatically theft. In some cases it might have to be resolved using the Civil Courts and you may need to see a solicitor for advice.
Example:
B borrows C's power drill. B keeps promising to return it, he does not intend to keep it and it is just left in the garage, but he doesn't get round to giving it back. If this is pure forgetfulness, which goes on for a fairly long period (despite reminders) it would not be theft. However, eventually there comes a point where C has been deprived of his property for so long that B has no excuse for not returning it (perhaps a year or more) and the Criminal Courts would consider he had stolen the drill.
If you have a problem with someone who has borrowed your property, keep a record of all the occasions you have asked for it back and then ask a solicitor to send a formal letter asking for the return of the property. If the property is still not returned, there may sufficient to justify making a complaint of theft to the police.
Every case will be different and it may be, for example, that the borrower claims the property was a gift. In circumstances like that, the police may not be willing to take action and you must to go to the Civil Courts to get your property back. In the case of a borrowed power drill this may not be economically worthwhile. Below is a brief summary of the offence of theft, it is not intended to be a comprehensive explanation.
Theft occurs when someone dishonestly appropriates (takes possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself/someone else without permission) some property that does not belong to him or her and treats it as his or her own and has no intention of returning the property to its rightful owner.
Examples:
B is walking along the street chatting on her mobile phone when C runs past and takes the phone from her hand and runs off with it.
B takes an item from the shelf of a shop and leaves the shop without paying for it (shoplifting).
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If hired property has not been returned it will only be a theft in certain circumstances.
Example:
B hires a car from C for a week and fails to return it on the due date. This does not automatically constitute a theft. B must have somehow treated the car as if it was his own, sold it on or moved from the area and taken the car with him and in doing so permanently deprived C of the ownership of the car.
In many cases, hired property is returned late or there is some misunderstanding. This is likely to be a breach of contract. It is advisable to make some basic enquiries into the matter (or speak to a lawyer) prior to making a formal complaint to the police, so you can give them as much information about the circumstances as possible. There can be a fine line between a civil dispute and theft.
If you are in any doubt (once you have found out why the goods have not been returned), contact the police or a solicitor who will help to explain the law accordingly. A brief summary of theft is below; it is not intended as a comprehensive explanation.
Theft occurs when someone dishonestly appropriates (takes possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself/someone else without permission) some property that does not belong to him or her and treats it as his or her own and has no intention of returning the property to its rightful owner.
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This could be a case of fraud. Fraud is where a person obtains or tries to obtain property through some form of deception or misrepresentation. Currently the most common form of fraud is credit card fraud, where someone pretends to be you or uses your personal details to obtain cash or property.
You should immediately contact your bank/credit card company to stop your card and report the discrepancies. The credit card company/bank will have their own fraud department and will work in conjunction with the police. This means you do not need to inform the police as it will be done for you if necessary.
Have you been the victim of identity theft? Ensure personal and financial information is shredded or otherwise destroyed. Do NOT put such material in the dustbin or take it to the dump. See SQ506 for more information on identity theft and how to prevent it.
Example:
B rings up a mobile phone company and uses C's credit card details to order a top up card. B has obtained the top up card by deception. He has presented the card details to the phone company as if he has the authority to use them. The phone company would never have allowed him to have the top up card if they knew that he was not the card owner.
Yes it is. Housebreaking is an aggravation of theft where a person enters a building or part of a building without permission and proceeds to steal property from within. For many people this means that someone has entered your house without permission and stolen property from inside your house.
The whole body does not have to enter the house, so if someone puts their arm through the letterbox and steal keys for example, this is a classed as a Housebreaking
Examples of housebreaking:
B smashes a patio door and opens it and goes into living room and steals a TV and DVD player and leaves the house.
B puts his hand through an open window and steals a purse that has been left on the kitchen unit.
If you have suffered from a housebreaking, please contact the police straight away and try not to touch anything that you think the offender may have touched.
See the websites in related information for further advice and details of how you can register your property with a serial number.
This amounts to a fraud. The offence is committed when you use goods or services, knowing that payment is expected there, and then and you leave, failing to pay for those services. By going into the restaurant and having a meal, a person implies that they have the means to pay for it.
Examples:
Filling a car up with petrol, failing to pay for it and driving off from the petrol forecourt.
Eating a meal in a restaurant and failing to pay for it.
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QuestionWhat is the law relating to fraud? AnswerFraud is a common law offence in Scotland and it covers a wide variety of activities. Essentially a fraud will be committed when someone makes a false representation to another in order to gain from that. For example if you steal a chequebook and then try to pay for goods in a shop with a cheque then you will commit a fraud as you are falsely claiming to be the person named on the chequebook. |
