White Collar & Corporate
10. Forgery
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 16 Sep 2015
- State or territory laws govern most forgery offences. There are some Commonwealth laws that may also apply to this conduct as well.
- Forgery offences deal with situations where someone makes, adapts or imitates a document or a signature on a document with an intention to defraud another party.
- The elements of forgery are that:
- the information contained in the document is false;
- the document is used to induce a third party to accept the document as genuine;
- the person intends to use the document to make a financial gain; and
- if the document is accepted then the person dishonestly makes a financial gain.
- Examples of the types of documents that may be forged include:
- bonds;
- cheques;
- mortgages;
- deeds; or
- tickets.
- There are different methods that can be used to forge a document such as:
- typing;
- handwriting; or
- printing.
- There are different offences relating to making, using or possessing a forged document.
- The defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact is available for some offences in some states.
- These are serious offences. In some states and territories certain forgery offences have a maximum imprisonment term of 10 years.
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