Wai Yutsang v The Queen: PC 14 Oct 1991

(Hong Kong) The defendant was chief accountant in a bank. He caused to be made false entries to fail to reflect the dishonouring of substantial cheques. He was charged alone on an allegation of conspiracy. His defence was that he merely obeyed the instructions of others to prevent a run on the bank.
Held: Once he had acted as he did, any motive was irrelevant. His appeal failed. As to the meaning of conspiracy to defraud, it required that the conspirators have dishonestly agreed to bring about a state of affairs which they realise will or may deceive the victim into so acting, or failing to act, that he will suffer economic loss or his economic interests will be put at risk.

Judges:

Lord Goff of Chieveley

Citations:

[1991] 3 WLR 1006, [1992] 1 AC 269, [1991] UKPC 32

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Commonwealth

Cited by:

CitedAdams v The Queen PC 4-Nov-1994
(New Zealand) The defendant had been a managing director of Equitcorp. With other directors he was concerned with the company’s investments, and established a series of other companies and banks to hide fraudulent transactions. Equitcorp became . .
CitedGG Plc and Others, Regina v; Regina v Goldshield Group plc and Others HL 12-Mar-2008
The defendants faced charges of conspiracy to fix and maintain the prices of prescription drugs.
Held: An indictment making such allegations must identify and particularise the aggravating acts which took such a conspiracy to the level of a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 28 June 2022; Ref: scu.220729