NIM12205 - NICs Personal Liability Notices: fraud

Section 121C of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (SSAA 1992)

The general term ‘fraud’ has a wide significance and there is no simple definition which covers the full range of conduct to which it may be applied.

The Oxford Dictionary defines fraud as “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.”

The following definition of fraud can be found in the Fraud Act 2006.

“Section 4 Fraud by abuse of position

(1) A person is in breach of this section if he:

(a) occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person,

(b) dishonestly abuses that position, and

(c) intends, by means of the abuse of that position:

(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or

(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

(2) A person may be regarded as having abused his position even though his conduct consisted of an omission rather than an act.”

For HMRC purposes, fraud will generally constitute falsification with intent to deceive. The active intent to deceive may be so slight that the falsification differs little from that resulting from negligence. On the other hand, the falsification may be deliberately planned with the clear intention of deception by, for example, the omission, manipulation or invention of figures or other records.