Fraud - Intention

The criminal offence of fraud normally requires a degree of mental intention.

A person may be liable for the offence of fraud where they deliberately undertake the fraudulent action with full knowledge of the circumstances (i.e. they know that the information that they are submitting is incorrect).

Alternatively, it is possible for a person to be liable for fraud if they were reckless as to the circumstances.  For example, a person may be liable for fraud if they submit information as part of a contract claim, and they know that the information may be incorrect, but they fail to take reasonable steps to determine that the information is accurate.

A person will not be liable for fraud if they honestly believe in the accuracy of their representation.  However, if the belief in a representation’s accuracy is implausible, then a judge may not accept that the belief was genuine.

If a person makes a representation honestly believing it to be true, and later discovers that it is incorrect, they need promptly to correct it, otherwise they could be liable for fraudulently allowing the false representation to remain in place, while knowing it is false.