Odger's English Common Law

388 FORGERY.
equity of any deed or bond, or any attestation of the execution
of any deed or bond
;
(c) Any bank note, or any indorsement on or assignment
of any bank note." x
Section 2 (2) enumerates a large number of documents,
chiefly relating to property, such as valuable securities,
powers of attorney and charterparties, the forgery of which
with intent to defraud is felony punishable with penal
servitude for fourteen years.
Section 3 deals with official documents, 2 the forgery of
which with intent to defraud or deceive is felony punishable
with
—
(a) penal servitude for life in the case of any document
under His Majesty's seal
;
(b) penal servitude for fourteen years in the case of registers
or copies of registers of births, deaths and marriages, &c.
(c) penal servitude for seven years in the case of other
official documents, such as licences, certificates, &c.
" Forgery of any document which is not made felony under
this or any other statute for the time being in force, if committed
with intent to defraud, shall be a misdemeanour
and punishable with imprisonment with or without hard
labour for any term not exceeding two years." So is
" forgery of any public document which is not made felony
under this or any other statute for the time being in force,
if committed with intent to defraud or deceive." 3
To counterfeit the various seals and dies mentioned in
section 5, or the impression of any such seals, 4 with intent to
-defraud or deceive, is felony punishable with terms of penal
servitude varying from life to seven years.
It will be observed that the Act makes an important distinction between
" an intent to defraud " and " an intent to "deceive." Under sections 8,
4 (2) and 5 it is sufficient if the prisoner did the act with either intention.
But in the case of documents referred to in sections 2 and 4 (1) it is
necessary to prove that the prisoner intended to defraud ; a mere intention
to deceive would not be sufficient. An intention to deceive may in some
cases be innocent :
1 S 2 (l).
2 See ante, p. 194.
'SI.
not so an intention to defraud.
< See the definition of " seal " in s. 18 (1).
;