Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against rights of property - Crimes involving deceit

240: Obtaining by deception or causing loss by deception

You could also call this:

“Using tricks or lies to get things that don't belong to you or to make someone lose something”

If you trick someone to get something you’re not supposed to have, you’re breaking the law. This is called ‘obtaining by deception’ or ‘causing loss by deception’. Here’s what it means:

You can’t use lies or tricks to get things like money, property, or services. You also can’t use deception to get credit or to make someone sign or change important papers. It’s wrong to cause someone to lose something through deception too.

It’s also against the law to sell or give away papers or things that you know were obtained through deception. If you do this, you could go to jail for up to 3 years.

Deception can mean different things. It could be lying with words or actions, leaving out important information when you should tell it, or using a trick to fool someone. If you know you’re not telling the truth or you don’t care if what you’re saying is true, that’s deception.

Remember, if you have a right to do something, it’s not deception. But if you’re trying to trick people to get things or make them lose things, that’s against the law.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM330275.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
Previous

239: Demanding with intent to steal, etc, or

“Forcing someone to give you something or do something for you by using threats or violence”

Next

240A: Application of section 240 to match-fixing, or

“This law explains how tricking people in sports and dog races to change betting results is considered a crime.”

Part 10 Crimes against rights of property
Crimes involving deceit

240Obtaining by deception or causing loss by deception

  1. Every one is guilty of obtaining by deception or causing loss by deception who, by any deception and without claim of right,—

  2. obtains ownership or possession of, or control over, any property, or any privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration, directly or indirectly; or
    1. in incurring any debt or liability, obtains credit; or
      1. induces or causes any other person to deliver over, execute, make, accept, endorse, destroy, or alter any document or thing capable of being used to derive a pecuniary advantage; or
        1. causes loss to any other person.

          1. Every person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years who, without reasonable excuse, sells, transfers, or otherwise makes available any document or thing capable of being used to derive a pecuniary advantage knowing that, by deception and without claim of right, the document or thing was, or was caused to be, delivered, executed, made, accepted, endorsed, or altered.

          2. In this section, deception means—

          3. a false representation, whether oral, documentary, or by conduct, where the person making the representation intends to deceive any other person and—
            1. knows that it is false in a material particular; or
              1. is reckless as to whether it is false in a material particular; or
              2. an omission to disclose a material particular, with intent to deceive any person, in circumstances where there is a duty to disclose it; or
                1. a fraudulent device, trick, or stratagem used with intent to deceive any person.

                  Compare
                  Notes
                  • Section 240: replaced, on , by section 15 of the Crimes Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 39).
                  • Section 240(1A): inserted, on , by section 12 of the Crimes Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 95).