The CRB regularly receive enquiries from applicants and companies who are confused about the meaning behind an offence that appears on an applicant’s certificate.
“Using False Instrument for Other Than Prescription for Scheduled Drug” is not a drug related offence, as some would believe. It is an offence that, in spite of its rather confusing name, refers solely to fraudulent activity such as forging a car tax disc, passport or a wide range of official documents.
Advice from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) clarifies that “An instrument is a ‘false instrument’ if it purports to have been made or altered by a person who did not in fact make or alter it, or authorise its making or altering, in the terms or form in which it appears….This means that to be a “false instrument” it is not enough that the instrument tells a lie. It must tell a lie about itself.”
The SFO goes on to define an instrument as:
- Any document, whether of a formal or informal character;
- Any stamp issued or sold by a postal operator;
- Any Inland Revenue stamp;
- Any disc, tape, sound track or other device on or in which information is recorded or stored by mechanical, electronic or other means.
The key words to focus on in the title of the offence are “other than” as this indicates that the offence covers a variety of fraudulent documents except for forgery of a prescription for a scheduled drug.
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