Charged with false accusation after reporting a forged receipt: acquitted

Background

Our client is a contractor who carried out civil engineering work. When the other side in a fee dispute produced receipts stating our client had been paid, our client believed they were forged and filed a criminal complaint. Prosecutors then charged our client with false accusation, alleging that our client had signed the receipts and lied in the complaint.

The issue

Whether our client had genuinely executed the receipts, making the complaint a report contrary to objective truth.

Our approach

Our client argued that they had never stamped the receipts with their seal and filed the complaint believing them forged, so they did not know the report was false.

The court's reasoning

The court noted that the seal impression on the receipts was visibly not our client's registered seal, while our client had used the registered seal on another contract the same day. Sounds on a recording and scan logs did not establish that our client had stamped the receipts, and the originals were never located. Our client also had other defenses available in the civil case, so a motive to make a false accusation was weak, and changes in statements to investigators could reflect refreshed memory.

Outcome

The court acquitted our client and ordered the gist of the acquittal to be made public.

What this case means

False accusation requires affirmative proof that the report was untrue. The mere inability to confirm the truth of a report is not enough for conviction.

This is the outcome of an individual case and does not guarantee the same result in similar matters. Some facts have been generalized to protect the parties involved.