These are offences that are committed by people who work in a business or own a business.

White collar criminals are individuals with the authority to represent the interests of the company such as a business professional or a government official. Often they have the opportunity to access company money through their position at work.

This type of offence is often committed against a company.

These offences are generally:

• financially motivated;

• non-violent; and

• involve deception.

Examples of white collar crimes include:

• insider trading;

• embezzlement;

• money laundering;

• copyright infringement;

• forgery;

• fraud; and

• bribery.

The Commonwealth and state or territory legislation (written law) sets out the defences that are available for this type of offences.

The penalties for these types of offences can be very serious. Usually all sentencing options are available to the court from a fine through to full time imprisonment. This depends on exactly what offences you have been convicted of, the amount of money involved and the scale of your offence.