ABSTRACT
The general policy behind the offence is to enable someone to be dealt with whose fraudulent activity may not be caught by other provisions. Although, since its enactment, a number of other offences of deception have been created – notably by the TA 1978 – s 17 remains a useful weapon in the prosecution’s armoury. In contrast to the deception offences covered in the last chapter, this offence does not require the defendant to have obtained any benefit – simply that he acted ‘with a view to gain ... or with intent to cause loss’. Nor does it require that anyone was actually deceived. This offence is committed at the time when the account is destroyed, defaced, concealed or falsified, or (once it has been falsified) when it is produced or used. Thus, it bites at an earlier time in the fraudster’s activities and can be seen, in some instances, as an alternative to a charge of attempting one of the deception offences. Although it may be said that the offence in s 25 of ‘going equipped’ fulfils this function, that offence does not catch anyone for going equipped to commit any deception offence other than obtaining property by deception.
