Contract law has been more formally defined as a promise or set of promises which the law will enforce. Another definition and a somewhat competing view, is that a contract is an agreement giving rise to obligations which are enforced or recognized by law. Either definition confirms the involvement of the law by way of enforcement, suggesting that should there be an infraction or breach of the terms of the agreement then the aggrieved party may seek recourse via the Courts. As is noted above, a contract can arise is a plethora of scenarios; from buying a loaf of bread in the corner shop, to the sale of a house. It is unsurprising therefore that certainty is needed before the Courts will intervene to enforce any agreement. The law of contract has confirmed the basic foundations of any contract, regardless of its complexity and substance that it must contain to make the agreement enforceable in law.The term 'fraud' is generally defined in the law as an intentional misrepresentation of material existing fact made by one person to another with knowledge of its falsity and for the purpose of inducing the other person to act, and upon which the other person relies with resulting injury or damage. [Fraud may also include an omission or intentional failure to state material facts, knowledge of which would be necessary to make other statements not misleading.

Business law case study

This case was related to fraud investigation

Our client is a not-for-profit organization concerned with the prevention of fraud and funded entirely by subscription. Their objective is to exchange information on fraud on a non-competitive basis. Members are drawn primarily from the UK financial services industry, but also from telecommunications, insurance and other sectors.

The system used by our client, had remained basically the same for 15 years but the organization had grown in size with millions of fraud matches a year compared to a few thousand in the early years

The Challenge

The environment had also changed with new delivery channels distancing customers from their financial service providers and making fraud more possible. At the same time there were competitive pressures from members to offer services to their customers 24 hour Our Solutions a day, 7 days a week and for increased speed of approval.

Our Solution

Logica was commissioned to deliver a new system to allow members to file fraud warnings over the Internet and for participating agencies to receive data from the central system rather than indirectly from each other.

Where fraud has been committed, the members can record warnings against the details on the database. Participating agencies receive the warnings and can notify their clients. Besides holding all information on each fraud, the fraud investigation system identifies links with other fraud cases such as shared addresses, common aliases and potential fraud rings. It also highlights the level of enquiry from other members on a case or address

The Result

Information on all fraud cases is available 365 days a year and details are not held back by a member’s unavailability. The system supports rapid decisions on whether a match is relevant and enables members to manage resources more effectively. Where quick decisions need to be made, they can be. Where more time needs to be taken, the available data is grouped together for efficient review by fraud specialists

Banker Technology Awards

The Fraud Investigation system developed by Logica for our client was highly commended in The Banker Technology Awards, Fraud Prevention Solution category. The award reflected the great strides that the fraud investigation

system and our client’s initiative had taken in helping prevent fraud in the UK.