Steel, Alex --- "Both Giving and Taking: Should Misuse of Atms and Electronic Payment Systems Be Theft, Fraud or Neither?" [2013] UNSWLRS 50

Last Updated: 16 August 2013

Both Giving and Taking: Should Misuse of Atms and Electronic Payment Systems Be Theft, Fraud or Neither?

Alex Steel, University of New South Wales

This paper is available for download at Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2289100

Citation

This paper was published in Criminal Law Journal Vol. 35, pp. 202-222 (2011). This paper may also be referenced as [2013] UNSWLRS 50.

Abstract

Although transactions via automatic teller machines and other computerised cash payment systems are now very widespread the criminal law relating to their misuse remains confused. Unauthorised withdrawals can be prosecuted as both theft and fraud. By contrast, similar behaviour involving interactions with human tellers is generally not criminal. The result is a deeply flawed and contradictory legal landscape. This article provides an analysis and critique of the case law and legislation that has led to this result and proposes an alternative statutory offence that better reflects the commercial and consumer realities of electronic transactions.