Garner, William

William Garner was convicted in September 1990 of three counts of obtaining property by deception and received a sentence of six months’ imprisonment.

The CCRC inherited an application for review of the conviction from the Home Office in March 1997.

Following investigation, the CCRC considered that the conviction was materially similar to the facts in the House of Lords judgment in the case of R v Preddy (1996).

Mr Preddy had been convicted of mortgage fraud under section 15 of the Theft Act 1968 which created the offence of obtaining “property of another” by deception.

The type of property fraud practiced by Mr Preddy and others had the effect of inducing the victim (usually a bank or building society) to issue a cheque in favour of the defendant.

In 1996 the House of Lords concluded that although there had been deception, it could not identify any “property of another” obtained by the fraud.

The Lords ruled that Mr Preddy’s conduct in dishonesty was not apt to be prosecuted under that particular section of the Theft Act.

The decision allowed those convicted on similar facts to seek to re-open their convictions.

The CCRC concluded that although there was a real possibility Mr Garner’s existing convictions would not be upheld, the court could substitute them for the offence of procuring a valuable security by deception.

The CCRC considered that Mr Garner should nevertheless have the opportunity to argue against substitution in court and referred the conviction in June 2000.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in April 2002.