City lawyers have welcomed proposals to unify fraud into a single defined offence at the conclusion of a consultation on a government overhaul of fraud law.

The proposals aim to simplify the definition of fraud in legislation, making it more comprehensible to juries and the general public, and making prosecutions more effective.


Simon Dawson, a solicitor and head of investigations at The Risk Advisory Group, said: 'We welcome the proposed new general offence of fraud, which will apply in circumstances where a person dishonestly makes a representation which he knows to be false or misleading, or which he is aware might be false or misleading.'


Matthew Frankland, a partner with niche City fraud firm Byrne & Partners, said: 'It is difficult to create a single definition of fraud beyond a basic one consisting of deceit and loss.


'Many defendant lawyers seem to think that the more nebulous and complicated the law is, the more opportunities there are to engage defence legal arguments. But if you look at the defendant himself, at the moment half the battle is in explaining what exactly he or she has been accused of, so I don't think the defendant and the prosecutor have anything to lose by codifying and changing the law.'