Our Commercial Fraud Solicitors Promise

At its heart, commercial fraud is the misrepresentation by a business or individual to receive gain from another party that they would not otherwise have received. It can be treated as a criminal or civil matter depending on the nature of the fraud and can therefore be punishable by imprisonment.

Several scenarios fall under the umbrella of commercial fraud, but the common denominator is typically dishonesty during a business transaction.

Some examples include:

• Offering misleading information on accounts during the sale of a business to attract higher bids
• Misrepresenting financial figures to secure investment or interest in shares
• Assuming the identity of another company for commercial or personal gain
• Moving assets between businesses
• Misselling or false advertising of a product to secure product interest and sales

The most common form of commercial fraud is fraud by deceit. For a case to be successful, there must be loss or damage to one of the parties.

Commercial fraud claims are challenging to prove. As with any solid civil or criminal defence case, the likelihood of a claim being successful or dismissed lies with the strength of any evidence.

In these situations, you often must speak to a solicitor to understand whether the claim has any chance of success.

Failing to take action now allows any potential claimant to build a stronger case or defendant to build a more robust defence.

Each case is different, which is why we offer an untimed initial consultation, at which stage your solicitor will provide an estimate for:

• How long they expect it will take to achieve your desired outcome
• How much you can expect to pay
• The work that is involved, for example, drafting and sending a letter before action, going through mediation or filing the case at court

Should you choose to instruct our firm, we will write to you confirming our fee estimate.

If your case needs to be referred to a court, there may be additional administration fees (printing, bundle assembly and postage), as well as any relevant court fees payable to the court.

Depending on the severity of the claim, there may be high additional costs to receive expert witness reports regardless of whether you are defending or making a claim for commercial fraud.