Cheating (law)

rdf:langString Cheating (law)

rdf:langString At law, cheating is a specific criminal offence relating to property. Historically, to cheat was to commit a misdemeanour at common law. However, in most jurisdictions, the offence has now been codified into statute. In most cases the codified statutory form of cheating and the original common law offence are very similar, however there can be differences. For example, under English law it was held in R v Sinclair that "[t]o cheat and defraud is to act with deliberate dishonesty to the prejudice of another person's proprietary right." However, at common law a great deal of authority suggested that there had to be contrivance, such that the public were likely to be deceived and that "common prudence and caution are not sufficient security against a person being defrauded thereby". Examples of cheating upheld by the courts have included fraudulently pretending to have power to discharge a soldier, using false weights or measures, and playing with false dice.