> What is considered criminal depends on the jurisdiction, but I doubt making false reports to a private company is criminal in very many.
I live in the Australian state of New South Wales. I just looked up our state law on this topic. Section 314 of the Crimes Act 1900 says: “A person who makes an accusation intending a person to be the subject of an investigation of an offence, knowing that other person to be innocent of the offence, is liable to imprisonment for 7 years.” I haven’t looked at the case law or anything, but just going by the wording of the statute, it seems broad enough to potentially include false accusations made to private companies in its scope.
Of course, probably none of the parties in the case under discussion live in my jurisdiction, so its laws are irrelevant. Still, if other jurisdictions don’t have a law like this on the books, maybe they should
That's fascinating, thank you. I've been involved with criminal law for a decade and not seen a law like that. I wonder if the accusation has to be made to a law enforcement agency, or whether it would apply in my situation where the person made an accusation to a private entity?
> I wonder if the accusation has to be made to a law enforcement agency, or whether it would apply in my situation where the person made an accusation to a private entity?
I can't find any case law which directly answers your question; as far as I am aware, no case has ever been prosecuted under that law for the type of scenario we are talking about (but just because it hasn't happened yet, isn't in itself a bar for it happening some day in the future). This law never says the false accusation has to be made to a law enforcement agency, even though similar laws in other jurisdictions do explicitly say that; I don't see why a court would insert that requirement when the text doesn't explicitly contain it. But of course, nobody can be certain unless some day the matter actually comes before a court to decide.
I live in the Australian state of New South Wales. I just looked up our state law on this topic. Section 314 of the Crimes Act 1900 says: “A person who makes an accusation intending a person to be the subject of an investigation of an offence, knowing that other person to be innocent of the offence, is liable to imprisonment for 7 years.” I haven’t looked at the case law or anything, but just going by the wording of the statute, it seems broad enough to potentially include false accusations made to private companies in its scope.
Of course, probably none of the parties in the case under discussion live in my jurisdiction, so its laws are irrelevant. Still, if other jurisdictions don’t have a law like this on the books, maybe they should