Cheating

Cheating is the fraudulently obtaining the property of another by any deceitful practice not amounting to felony, but of such a nature that it directly affects or may affect the public at large; numerous statutes have been passed to restrain cheating in particular businesses. Moreover, the offence of selling articles, knowing any trade-marks thereon to be counterfeited, is reducible to this head of cheating, as is also the offence of selling by false weights and measures. The general punishment for all cheating indictable at common law is fine and imprisonment, to which by a statute passed in the fifteenth year of the reign of her present Majesty (chap. 29), hard labour may now be added. Cheating at play is punishable in like manner, as obtaining money by false pretences, under Vict. 8 and 9, c. 109.