SDLTM86400 - Compliance: Penalties

Culpability: General: Fraud or fraudulent conduct

It is not necessary to distinguish between fraud and fraudulent conduct, nor will it normally be necessary to make an allegation of fraud if, as is generally the case, the expected offer can be obtained by reference to negligence.

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

Fraud (in relation to HM Revenue & Customs) includes, in its various forms, falsification with an intention to deceive and this may be present even as a mere conscious understatement in, or omission from, a land transaction return or the supporting material thereto.

Thus, the active intention to deceive may, on the one hand, be so slight that the falsification differs little from that resulting from carelessness or negligence. On the other hand, falsification may be deliberately planned with the clear intention of deceiving and cheating HM Revenue & Customs by, for example, the omission, manipulation or invention of figures, or other records. This will require consideration by SCI/CI.