Schedule 1: Minor and Consequential Amendments
Abolition of various deception offences
Paragraph 1 removes the deception offences which are replaced by the new offences in the Act.
Visiting Forces Act 1952
Paragraph 2 amends the Schedule to the 1952 Act which defines “offence against property” for the purposes of section 3 of that Act, which restricts the trial by UK courts of offenders connected with visiting forces. It inserts a reference to the Fraud Act 2006, so that all the offences in this Act will be regarded as offences against property, meaning they cannot in most circumstances be charged against visiting forces.
Theft Act 1968
Paragraph 3 omits section 15B, which is no longer needed, as it is mainly supplementary to 15A which is being repealed by paragraph 1.
Paragraph 4 removes the references in section 18(1) of the 1968 Act (liability of company officers) to sections 15 and 16, which are repealed by paragraph 1. As explained above, the effect of section 18 is reproduced for all the new offences in this Act by section 12.
Paragraph 5 removes the reference in section 20(3) of the 1968 Act (which defines “deception” for the purposes of the offence - in subsection (2) - of procuring a valuable security by deception) to section 15, which is repealed by the Act. Section 20(2) of the 1968 Act is repealed by paragraph 1, so there is no need for any replacement provision.
Paragraph 6 makes two amendments of section 24 of the 1968 Act (scope of offences relating to stolen goods).
It replaces the reference in section 24(4) to section 15 with a reference to fraud within the meaning of the Act.
It adds a new subsection (5) to section 24 which provides that, in section 24(1), the reference to the commencement of the 1968 Act shall be read as a reference to the commencement of the Fraud Act 2006 and the reference to offences under section 15 shall be read as a reference to the general fraud offence in section 1 of this Act.
Paragraph 7 makes three amendments of section 24A of the 1968 Act (on dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit, which was inserted by the 1996 Act as a result of R v Preddy [1996] AC 815).
It deletes the existing subsections (3) and (4), which deal with the meaning of “wrongful”, and replaces them with a new subsection (2A). The effect is that the existing references to offences under section 15A are replaced by a reference to the general fraud offence in section 1 of the Act.
The second change is consequential on the above - it renumbers as (2A) the existing reference to subsection (4) in subsection (7).
It replaces the existing subsection (9), which says that “account” and “money” shall be construed in accordance with 15B. Although section 15B is repealed in paragraph 3, the substance of subsections (3) to (5) needs to be preserved for the sake of section 24A. This paragraph does this by inserting them as subsections (9) to (11) of section 24A, which is now their more natural home. (But the reference to the euro is dropped - it is no longer needed now that the euro is a currency.) It also expands the definition of “account” to include accounts kept with issuers of electronic money.
Paragraph 8 amends section 25 (going equipped). Section 25 will be replaced as far as its application to fraud is concerned by sections 6 to 8 of the Act. Therefore, section 25 needs modifying so that the references to “cheats” in subsection (1), (3) and (5) are removed because the term “cheat” is defined by reference to section 15 of the 1968 Act.
Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969
Paragraph 9 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Act.
Paragraph 10 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Act.
Paragraph 11 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to the Act.
Paragraph 12 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to paragraph 7 of Schedule 1 to the Act.
Paragraph 13 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to paragraph 8 of Schedule 1 to the Act.
Theft Act 1978
Paragraph 14 repeals section 4(2)(a), which specifies the penalties for offences under sections 1 and 2 of the Act, which are both repealed by paragraph 1.
Paragraph 15 repeals section 5(1), which defines “deception” for the purposes of sections 1 and 2 and will likewise be redundant on their repeal.
Theft (Northern Ireland) Order 1978
Paragraphs 16 and 17 of Schedule 1 make provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to the provision made for England and Wales by paragraphs 14 and 15.
Limitation Act 1980
Paragraph 18 amends section 4 (special time limit on civil actions in cases of theft). It replaces the existing section 4(5)(b), which defines “theft” as including cases of fraud under section 15 of the 1968 Act and blackmail under section 21 of the 1968 Act, with a new provision which refers to fraud (within the meaning of the Act). It preserves the reference to blackmail.
Finance Act 1982
Paragraph 19 amends section 11, which enables the Commissioners of Customs and Excise to institute proceedings under the Theft Act 1968, the Theft Act 1978 etc, notwithstanding the fact that payments may be due to the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce. The amendment adds the Fraud Act 2006 to the list of Acts in respect of which proceedings may be taken.
Nuclear Material (Offences) Act 1983
Paragraph 20 amends section 1, which provides that if a person commits a wide range of offences (including “fraud”) “in relation to or by means of” nuclear material, he may be tried in the UK irrespective of where he did the acts. The amendment simply deletes the reference to section 15 of the 1968 Act and section 15 of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969, which are repealed by the Act. As “fraud” is already mentioned in section 1 in a general way, the 1983 Act provision will bite on the offence in section 1 of the Act without the need for a specific mention of the Act.
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
Paragraph 21 amends section 1(8) (on stop and search) by replacing the existing reference to section 15 of the 1968 Act with a reference to fraud contrary to section 1. The effect is that articles made or adapted for use in frauds will be “prohibited articles” and a constable may search vehicles for them under section 1(2) or seize them under section 1(6). (This does not obviate the need for section 6 of the Act as the possession of “prohibited articles” is not an offence under PACE.)
Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989
Paragraph 22 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to the provision made for England and Wales by paragraph 18.
Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989
Paragraph 23 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to the provision made for England and Wales by paragraph 21.
Criminal Justice Act 1993
Paragraph 24 makes three amendments to the definitions of Group A and Group B offences for the purposes of the jurisdictional provisions of Part 1 of the 1993 Act. The basic effect of these 1993 provisions is to give our courts jurisdiction over certain specific crimes of dishonesty even where only one element of the offence took place in the UK. So paragraph 24:
deletes the references in section 1(2)(a) to sections 15, 15A, 16 and 20(2) of the 1968 Act, which are redundant as they are repealed by the Act,
deletes section 1(2)(b) which comprises references to sections 1 and 2 of the 1978 Act, which are repealed by the Act, and
adds to section 1(2) a new paragraph (bb) with references to the offences in sections 1, 6, 7, 9 and 11 of the Act.
Paragraph 25 amends section 2 of the 1993 Act to ensure that the offence of fraud in section 1 of the Act can be prosecuted if the only event that takes place in this jurisdiction is the gain or loss of property.
Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1994
Paragraph 26 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to the provision made for England and Wales by paragraph 27.
Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996
Paragraph 27 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to the provision made for England and Wales by paragraph 24.
Paragraph 28 makes provision for Northern Ireland equivalent to the provision made for England and Wales by paragraph 25.
Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000
Paragraph 29 amends section 130 (on compensation orders). Section 130 contains references in subsections (5) and (6)(a) to an offence under the Theft Act 1968. This paragraph inserts a new reference to offences under the Act. This is consequential on the repeal and replacement of sections 15, 15A, 15B, 16 and 20 (2) of the 1968 Act by the Act.
Terrorism Act 2000
Paragraph 30 amends Schedule 9 (scheduled offences) to reflect the repeal of the section 15 of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 (offence of “obtaining property by deception”) and the creation of the new offences under section 1 of the Act.
Paragraph 31 amends Schedule 12 to reflect the repeal of section 15 of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 and the consequent need to include an express definition of deception.
Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000
Paragraph 32 makes two amendments to Schedule 6, which defines “trigger offences” for the purposes of Part 3 of the 2000 Act. The term is used in sections 63 and 64 (in both cases commission of a trigger offence can lead to drug testing of young offenders on supervision or licence after release). So paragraph 30:
removes the reference to section 15, which will be redundant on its repeal, and
inserts a new paragraph 3 saying that offences under sections 1, 6 and 7 of the Act are trigger offences.
Armed Forces Act 2001
Paragraph 33 amends section 2 which gives similar powers of stop and search to service policemen as are given to regular policemen by PACE. It replaces the existing reference to section 15 of the 1968 Act with a reference to section 1 of the Act. It parallels the amendment to PACE made by paragraph 21.
Licensing Act 2003
Paragraph 34 adds a reference to offences under the Act to the list of “relevant offences” for the purposes of the personal licence provisions of the 2003 Act.
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004
Paragraph 35 amends the list of offences, in section 14(2) of the 2004 Act, for which an Immigration Officer may arrest without warrant when exercising a function under the Immigration Acts. Sub-paragraph (1) deletes the existing references to offences repealed by the Act. Sub-paragraph (2) inserts a reference to provisions of the Act broadly equivalent to those which are currently mentioned in section 14.
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
Paragraph 36 amends section 76 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which concerns financial reporting orders. That section provides for a new ancillary order, available to courts at the point of sentence that will require offenders convicted of specified fraud and organised crime lifestyle offences to make such reports of their income and assets as the court sets out in the order. Paragraph 34 ensures that the offences in sections 1 and 11 of the Act can trigger the making of a financial reporting order and deletes the references in section 76 of the 2005 Act to the deception offences in sections 15, 15A, 16 and 20(2) of the Theft Act 1968 and sections 1 and 2 of the Theft Act 1978 that are repealed by the Act.
Paragraph 37 makes similar changes to section 78 of the 2005 Act which concerns financial reporting orders in Northern Ireland.
Gambling Act 2005
Paragraph 38 adds a reference to offences under the Act to the list of “relevant offences” for the purposes of the Gambling Act. Under the Gambling Act a conviction for a relevant offence is a ground on which a licence under that Act may be refused.