Over the past four years, Queensland’s Court of Appeal has allowed five appeals in criminal fraud cases because of insufficient directions to the jury on the defendant’s “knowledge, belief, or intent” that is alleged to have caused the defendant’s conduct to be dishonest. Is it that hard to articulate what knowledge, belief, or intent held by the defendant rendered her conduct dishonest?
Higgins Chambers member Grace Devereaux explores the issue in her article on the topic, published in September’s issue of Hearsay.
A link to the article can be found here: https://hearsay.org.au/knowledge-belief-or-intent-the-difficulties-of-particularising-a-fraud-2/
