Theft Act 1968, S. 15A: Obtaining Money Transfer by Deception
| Author | Alan Reed |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.2005.69.4.287 |
| Published date | 01 August 2005 |
| Date | 01 August 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Divisional Court |
Divisional Court
Theft Act 1968, s. 15A: Obtaining Money Transfer by
Deception
Holmes vGovernor of Brixton Prison [2004] EWHC 2020,
[2005] 1 All ER 490
The applicant issued a payment order for more than US $15 million from
his employer, a German bank, to a bank in Amsterdam. It was alleged
that he entered as recipient of the payment a company controlled by
him, and that to do so, he used, without authorisation, the passwords of
two of his colleagues, to conceal his involvement in the transfer. Initially
the Amsterdam bank credited the amount to the company’s account
with a reservation requiring confirmation of authorisation. The appli-
cant then confirmed in three messages that the transfer was in order and
authorised. On the basis of these false confirmations the reservation was
removed and the instructed amount was credited to the company’s
account.
Subsequently, the German authorities made a request to the Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department for extradition of the applicant,
alleging that he had committed an offence under German law. In
response the Home Secretary specified, for the purposes of his order
giving authority to proceed with the request under s. 7 of the Extradition
Act 1989, that the conduct of which the applicant was accused was
conduct which, had it occurred in the UK, would have constituted
offences of theft and obtaining a money transfer by deception. As a
consequence, the applicant was detained in Brixton Prison pursuant to
an order for committal made by the Bow Street magistrate, to await the
Home Secretary’s decision on the extradition.
The applicant submitted, inter alia, that the conduct alleged in the
warrant did not amount under English law to the offence of obtaining a
money transfer by deception under s. 15A of the Theft Act 1968, as
inserted by s. 1 of the Theft (Amendment) Act 1996. The material parts
of s. 15A provide as follows:
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if by any deception he dishonestly
obtained a money transfer for himself or another.
(2) A money transfer occurs when—
(a) debit is made to one account;
(b) credit is made to another, and
(c) the credit results from the debit or the debit results from the
credit.
(3) References to a credit and to a debit are to a credit of an amount of
money and to a debit of an amount of money.
(4) It is immaterial (in particular)—
(a) whether the amount credited is the same as the amount
debited;
287
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