Forgery—making false document

Offence title:

Forgery—making false document

Act:

253 Crimes Act (NSW)

Offence:

A person who makes a false document with the intention that the person or another will use it:

(a)   To induce someone to accept it as genuine, and

(b)   Because of its being accepted as genuine,

                         i.         to obtain any property belonging to another, or

                       ii.         to obtain any financial advantage or cause any financial disadvantage, or

                      iii.         to influence the exercise of a public duty,

commits an offence.

Penalty:

Imprisonment 10 years.

Summary/Indictable/mixed:

Mixed

Jurisdiction:

Local, District or Supreme Court.

How committed:

Person A presents a false copy of a driving licence as proof of identity to obtain a monetary loan.

Important note:

A document is false if, and only if, the document (or any part of the document) purports:

(a)   to have been made in the form in which it is made by a person who did not in fact make it in that form, or

(b)   to have been made in the form in which it is made on the authority of a person who did not in fact authorise its making in that form, or

(c)    to have been made in the terms in which it is made by a person who did not in fact make it in those terms, or

(d)   to have been made in the terms in which it is made on the authority of a person who did not in fact authorise its making in those terms, or

(e)   to have been altered in any respect by a person who did not in fact alter it in that respect, or

(f)    to have been altered in any respect on the authority of a person who did not in fact authorise its alteration in that respect, or

(g)   to have been made or altered on a date on which, or at a place at which, or otherwise in circumstances in which, it was not in fact made or altered, or

(h)   to have been made or altered by, or on the authority of, a person who did not in fact exist.

Making a false document occurs when it is altered so as to make it false within the meaning of this section (whether or not it is false in some other respect apart from that alteration).

A document that purports to be a true copy of another document is to be treated as if it were the original document.

s.251 Inducing acceptance of false document

(1)   Inducing a person to accept a false document as genuine includes a reference to causing a machine to respond to the document as if it were a genuine document.

(2)   If it is necessary for the purposes of this Part to prove an intent to induce some person to accept a false document as genuine, it is not necessary to prove that the accused intended so to induce a particular person.