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Channel players have welcomed the government’s Fraud Act 2006, but the general industry consensus is uncertain as to whether the Act will be a strong enough deterrent.
As revealed by CRN, the Fraud Act 2006 officially became law last week, and for the first time establishes a single statutory offence of fraud (CRN Online, 15 January).
Historically fraud was prosecuted under various, outdated guises of Deception, but now fraud is split into three main categories – fraud by false representation, fraud by failure to disclose information, and fraud by abuse of position.
On top of the specific offences, the Act will also make it easier to prosecute fraudsters because it will focus on what the accused intended rather than what actually resulted.
Alex Plavsic, fraud investigations partner at market watcher KPMG Forensic, said: “The Fraud Act underlines the government’s seriousness about tackling fraud. But the number of frauds being committed in the UK shows no sign of diminishing and it is important that greater efforts are made to prevent fraud occurring in the first place.”
John Smart, fraud partner at Ernst & Young, said: “Although welcome, the Fraud Act is likely to have little immediate effect on businesses because its main purpose is to speed fraud cases through the courts. It does not address the magic bottleneck – a lack of police investigation resources.”
Eddie Pacey, director of credit at distributor Bell Micro, said: “I think anything that tightens this area up a little bit is welcome and the establishment of a fraud offence makes a lot of sense.
“However, I don’t think that this will affect the nature of fraud in our industry – people are still going to be targeted by fraudsters. I believe that a lot of fraud in our industry could be avoided by being more careful and carrying out more stringent checks.”
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