Misleading documents or statements used or made by agents

Offence title:

Misleading documents or statements used or made by agents

Act:

249C Crimes Act (NSW)

Offence:

(1)   Any agent who uses, or gives to the agent’s principal, a document which contains anything that is false or misleading in any material respect, with intent to defraud the agent’s principal, commits an offence.

(2)   Any agent who makes a statement to the agent’s principal which is false or misleading in any material respect, with intent to defraud the principal, commits an offence.

Penalty:

(1)   Imprisonment 7 years.

(2)   Imprisonment 7 years.

Summary/Indictable/mixed:

Mixed

Jurisdiction:

Local, District or Supreme Court.

How committed:

(1)   A building site manager, with control of logistics to the site, provides an invoice and demand payment the agents principal, to permit product to be delivered to the site, where the invoice is known to be fraudulent.

(2)   A delivery truck driver provides a false invoice to his employer for maintenance work to the truck that the driver claims, falsely, he paid for.

Important note:

Agent includes:

(a)   any person employed by, or acting for or on behalf of, any other person (who in this case is referred to in this Part as the person’s principal) in any capacity,

(b)   any person purporting to be, or intending to become, an agent of any other person (who in this case is referred to in this Part as the person’s principal), and

(c)    any person serving under the Crown (which in this case is referred to in this Part as the person’s principal), and

(d)   a police officer (and in this case a reference in this Part to the agent’s principal is a reference to the Crown), and

(e)   a councillor within the meaning of the Local Government Act 1993 (and in this case a reference in this Part to the agent’s principal is a reference to the local council of which the person is a councillor), and

(f)    a councillor within the meaning of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (and in this case a reference in this Part to the agent’s principal is a reference to the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council), and

(g)   a Board member of a Local Aboriginal Land Council within the meaning of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (and in this case a reference in this Part to the agent’s principal is a reference to the Local Aboriginal Land Council).

s.249G Repayment of value of gift etc

(1)   If a person is convicted of an offence under this Part, the court may (as well as imposing a penalty for the offence) order the person to pay to such other person as the court directs the whole or part of the amount or the value, assessed by the court, of any benefit received or given by the person.

(2)   Any money payable to a person under this section may be recovered in a court of competent jurisdiction as a debt due to the person.

s.249H Disqualification for office

If a person is convicted of an offence under this Part, the person is disqualified from holding civic office for the purposes of the Local Government Act 1993, for the period of 7 years from the conviction or such lesser period as the court may order.

s.249I Dismissal of trivial case

If, in any proceedings for an offence under this Part, it appears to the court that the offence is of a trivial or merely technical nature, the court may in its discretion dismiss the case.

s.249J Custom not a defence

In any proceedings for an offence under this Part, it is not a defence that the receiving, soliciting, giving or offering of any benefit is customary in any trade, business, profession or calling.