General Fraud Offences in Australia

Alex Steel, University of New South Wales

Article comments

This paper was presented at the 2006 ALTA Conference. This paper may also be referenced as [2007] UNSWLRS 55.

Abstract

In the last 20 years a number of Australian jurisdictions have introduced general fraud offences which constitute a decisive break with traditional approaches to defining fraud. Instead of offences based on obtaining of property by deception, or obtaining of pecuniary/financial advantage by deception, they are based around concepts of general dishonesty and gain or loss of any type – pecuniary or otherwise. This paper provides an overview of such offences now in existence in the Western Australian, Queensland, Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory jurisdictions, and also comments on the Northern Territory offence which uses deception, but not dishonesty, as a basis for liability.

The paper argues that all these offences are impermissibly broad and vague and rely on allegations of mental states of mind to criminalise actions otherwise lawful.