Fraud Solicitors

Fraud Solicitors

Offences involving fraud can range from simple cases of benefit fraud or insurance fraud to highly complex large scale fraud involving business or organised crime.

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Cheque fraud

This commonly involves the use of stolen or counterfeit cheques to buy goods, often or high value. The false representation here is that the person using the cheque was lawfully in possession of it and therefore entitled to use it.

If you have been charged with cheque fraud contact us for a consultation.

Credit card fraud

Credit card fraud can involve the use of stolen or counterfeit or cloned cards or the production of cloned credit cards. If the defendant is using his own credit card knowing that he has exceeded his credit limit then the false representation will be that he had authority to use the card and that the card issuer would honour the transaction.

If you have been charged with credit card fraud contact us for a consultation.

Insurance fraud

Insurance fraud is very common. The most common type of insurance fraud is topping up genuine claims by over claiming for stolen goods or by claiming for goods which never existed. Other types of insurance fraud include things like arranging to have goods stolen or having premises burned down in order to facilitate making a claim.

If you have been charged with insurance fraud contact us for a consultation.

Counterfeit goods / Piracy

Counterfeit or pirated goods are common in today's society. In many cases the buyer knows the goods to be counterfeit; these often include CD"s, DVD"s, designer goods such as clothes, jewellery, perfume and watches. Other goods such as counterfeit currency may or may not be know to be counterfeit. Production of these goods is a breach of intellectual property rights and sale of the goods is a fraudulent offence.

If you have been charged with producing or distributing counterfeit goods contact us for a consultation.

Mortgage fraud

Mortgage fraud is a term used to describe a broad variety of criminal actions where the intent is to materially misrepresent or omit information on a mortgage loan application to obtain a loan or to obtain a larger loan than would have been obtained had the lender or borrower known the truth.

Most cases of mortgage fraud involve the borrower deceiving the lender about one or more of the following aspects in the application for the loan:

• The value of the property
• Misrepresentation of the purpose of the loan
• The borrower's employment status
• The income of the borrower
• Other debt obligations
• The source of the deposit

In addition to the above examples of false representation, some mortgage fraud is carried out on the basis of obtaining money by someone who is not entitled to borrow on the property involved. This can involve falsely borrowing money on someone else's property or borrowing money under a fictitious identity by the use of counterfeit identification documents. If you have been charged with mortgage fraud contact us for a consultation.

Tax fraud

There are many types of Tax fraud which can be investigated by HM Revenue & Customs. Unfortunately this type of investigation can often result in the freezing of bank accounts even before a trial, meaning that often legitimate businesses are unable to trade in the interim period.

Common types of Tax fraud include:

• VAT fraud
• Income Tax fraud
• Diversion fraud - these cases involve the importation of goods on which duty should be paid, such as tobacco and alcohol.
• Missing trader fraud (MTIC) - Missing trader fraud (also called Missing Trader Intra-Community, MTIC) is the theft of Value Added Tax (VAT) from a government by organised crime gangs who exploit the way VAT is treated within multi-jurisdictional trading where the movement of goods between jurisdictions is VAT-free. This allows the fraudster to charge VAT on the sale of goods, and then instead of paying this over to the government's collection authority, simply absconds, taking the VAT with him. The term "missing trader" refers to the fact that the trader goes missing with the VAT
• Carousel fraud - "Carousel" refers to a more complex type of fraud in which VAT and goods are passed around between companies and jurisdictions, similar to how a carousel goes round and round.

If you are involved in an investigation for Tax fraud it is essential that you contact us immediately.

Money laundering

Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, and/or destination of illegally gained money. In the United Kingdom the common law definition is wider: "taking any action with property of any form which is either wholly or in part the proceeds of a crime that will disguise the fact that the property is the proceeds of a crime or obscure the beneficial ownership of said property." It is common to refer to money legally obtained as "clean", and money illegally obtained as "dirty".

If you are involved in an investigation or have been charges with money laundering it is essential that you contact us immediately.

Passport, identification and other document fraud

It is a serious offence to possess, manufacture or distribute counterfeit or false documents. This includes such things as passports, driving licenses and other documents which can be used as identification. It is also an offence to manufacture or possess counterfeit documents such as MOT certificates and insurance certificates. Production of counterfeit documents is usually a large scale sophisticated process involving specialist equipment. Possessing articles or equipment to produce false documents is an offence.

If you have been charged with document fraud it is essential that you contact us immediately.

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