House of Lords
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838805200303 |
| Date | 01 August 1988 |
| Published date | 01 August 1988 |
| Subject Matter | House of Lords |
HOUSE
OF
LORDS
FORGERY-THE
PRINCIPLE OF "AUTOMENDACITY"
R. VMore
Under
the law of forgery as it stood prior to the introduction of
the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, a document was not
"false" for the purposes of the offence of forgery merely because
it told a lie (i.e. contained a false statement); it had to "tell a lie
about
itself',
i.e. the document had to be false, not merely the
information in it. This so-called principle of "automendacity" was
along-established feature of the offence.
The
important decision
of the House of Lords in R. v More [1987] 1
W.L.R.
1578, confirms
that "autornendacity" remains as a feature of the offence of forgery
as now defined in section 1 of the 1981 Act.
Acheque for £5,303.23 made payable to an "M. R. Jessell" was
acquired by the defendant who then opened an account at a branch
of the Anglia Building Society in the name of
"Mark
Richard
Jessell" and paid the cheque into that account. Several days later
he withdrew £5,000 from the account in the form of a cheque
payable to "M. R. Jessell", signing the withdrawal form "M. R.
Jessell". The defendant was charged on an indictment containing
counts of theft of the first cheque; obtaining the second cheque
by deception; and forgery (of the withdrawl form) contrary to
section 1of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981.
That
section
provides:
"A
person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false
instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to
induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so
accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any
other
person's prejudice".
It
was alleged that the defendant had made a
false instrument namely an Anglia Building Society withdrawal
form, by signing it in the name of M. R. Jessell with the intention
that he should use it to induce Sarah Jane Wood to accept it as
genuine and by reason of so accepting it to do some act to
her
own or another's prejudice namely to make
out
acheque in the
sum of £5,000 payable to M. R. Jessell and issue it to (the
259
To continue reading
Request your trial