Fraud Act 2023: Legal Reforms Targeting Phishing and Cybercrime

The new law aims to close a number of loopholes in preceding anti-fraud legislation, which the Government said was unsuited to modern fraud. Until now there has been no single, general fraud law in English law, but an untidy mess of eight specific statutory crimes, such as 'obtaining property by deception,' and a vague common law offence of 'conspiracy to defraud'. Scotland does have a common law crime of fraud, committed when someone achieves a practical result by a false pretence.

The Fraud Act introduces a general offence of fraud which can be committed by false representation, by failing to disclose information or by abuse of position. The offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment. "The Act replaces the existing complicated array of over-specific and overlapping deception offences," said a Home Office statement. "These offences have proved inadequate to tackle the wide range of possible fraudulent activity today or keep pace with rapidly developing technology."

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