Law Commission Consultation Paper looks at legislating the criminal code

United Kingdom

The Law Commission has reached the view that the current law of deception is ill suited to charging the fraudulent use of credit, debit and cheque cards (or any similar payment instrument which may be developed in the future), and its use to do so distorts the law in unfortunate ways. Through Law Commission Consultation Paper no. 155 (March 1999), The Commission provisionally proposed:

1) that a person would commit an offence if he or she intentionally or recklessly causes a legal liability to pay money to be imposed on another, knowing that the other does not consent to his or her doing so and that he or she has no right to do so; and

2) that the other should not be regarded as consenting to the imposition of the liability if his or her consent is procured by deception; but

3) that a person should not commit the offence if, at the time of causing the liability to be imposed, he or she believes that the other would have consented to his or her doing so if the other had known all the material circumstances.

Dealing with the issue of buying services over the internet, the Law Commission states that it is becoming possible to fraudulently obtain services of significant value without deceiving a human mind. Such conduct is not currently criminal and is outside the offence of obtaining services via deception for this reason. It therefore provisionally concludes:

1) that it should be criminal to obtain a service without the permission of the person providing it, albeit without the deception of a human mind; but

2) that this change should be effected by extending the offence of theft or creating a separate theft-like offence, rather than by extending the concept of deception.

The Law Commission therefore makes no proposal on this matter but will return to it when it reviews the law of theft.

The Law Commission invites comments on any of the matters raised by the Paper. The deadline for views is 31st July 1999.

Credit card providers should note that the Law Commission does not make any comment on the rules dealing with the civil liability of the debtor where there has been misuse of a credit-token under sections 83 and 84 of the Consumer Credit Act.