Statute of limitation on Fraud

Lipton · #1 Mar 14, 2007, 10:14 AM

Is there a statue of limitation on Fraud In Ontario or Canada? Do the police have a time limit in order to charge an individual? Obviously murder rape and stuff like that would not....Does anyone know?

CaptainForest · Mar 14, 2007, 11:59 AM

Crime as per the Criminal Code of Canada is a federal issue in Canada.

For summary offences, the SOL is 6 months.

For indictable offences, there is no SOL.

That means that if an offence is a summary one, the Crown only has 6 months to file charges against you.

Examples of some crimes:
Sexual assault is an indictable offence. Therefore, no SOL.

For Fraud…
It depends on the type of fraud, but it looks like Fraud is an indictable offence, meaning there is no SOL.

Take a look here for a complete copy of the Criminal Code of Canada: Criminal Code, [R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46]

Lipton · Mar 15, 2007, 03:54 PM

You keep following me around captain. Good advice but I can't find anything that you mentioned on that site, you are probably right. The reason I am asking is I have a business and a customer who is known to me ran a bad credit card and the police aren't doing anything citing that "the person whose card he used is his mother in law although she did not authorize him to use it she is unwilling to press charges". Yet the credit card company keeps gouging my account for the money. So I am really ticked and I want to push for a criminal charge and I was wondering how long I would have on it.

CaptainForest · Mar 15, 2007, 06:11 PM

The link was meant to check the types of fraud and which are pursued via indictable vs. summary.

As for the SOL on filing the charges (6 months for summary vs. no SOL for indictable), see here:

Statute of Limitations: Learn More about Statute of Limitations before your time runs out

Quote:

In contrast, Canada has a criminal limitations periods only for summary (less serious) offences. The period is six months from the date of the offence. Thus, A can only be charged with failing to inform of a hole in ice (an actual offence) within six months of the time of commission, unless both the Crown and the defence agree. In the case of indictable (more serious) offences, if A sexually assaulted V, A could be charged any time in the future—even if the crime happened twenty years ago.

Lipton · Mar 16, 2007, 05:46 PM

Excellent help there captain. You brought up another interesting point. What is considered a summary offence and what is considered an idictable offence when it comes to fraud? Is it the amount? or is it something else?

CaptainForest · Mar 16, 2007, 06:04 PM

I took a quick glance at it and I read 3 different types of offences with the word fraud in it. All of those were indictable offences. My guess is that they all would be at least indictable.



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