Forgery of a signature: examination and punishment. Criminal liability for signature forgery

A signature is a special sign of a person, his property, which belongs only to him, and no one has the right to take it away from a citizen. In some cases, a signature is an identification of a person, along with a passport.

Any unauthorized forgery is punishable by law, and signature forgery is no exception. As a rule, signs of signature forgery are determined mainly on documents.

Signature forgeries are made in different ways and for different purposes. The main motive of the one who performs these actions is to give legal force to the document on which the signature is affixed, as a rule, by an official or authorized person.

Types of documents

It is necessary to distinguish between forged documents and counterfeit ones. This is important during a preliminary or judicial investigation, and especially if it is necessary to order an examination.

False documents are those that contain changes that do not correspond to the genuine parts of the document that are supposed to be contained or purported to be contained in the document.

Forged documents are those that directly contain information that does not correspond to reality.

What will it take to prove the attacker's guilt?

The injured citizen needs to file a claim in court - to do this, he will have to work hard to provide evidence of the fact of the criminal act, namely:

• there is a fact of falsification of the signature;
• the forged document was used for material gain.

Important! It is imperative to understand how a fake document differs from a counterfeit one. The first option involves making amendments that are not in the actual document. Second, the document contains data that does not correspond to reality.

When going to court, you must provide evidence of the fact of signature forgery

To create an evidence base, you need to have at your disposal a falsified document, witness testimony and a handwriting examination report, which will confirm that the signature on the document was affixed by the offender. Only if all the above-described evidence is available, the court will determine what amount of liability to award the defendant for falsifying a signature.

Before the case is brought into court, the investigative authorities will have to find out:

• whether the offender is a representative of a privileged sphere (managerial positions, civil servant, etc.), since the use of official position is an aggravating circumstance;
• whether there are selfish motives - it is possible that the person does not know that his actions are unlawful;
• what is the legal significance of the document - whether the accused person took advantage of the counterfeit paper and what losses the injured party (if any) suffered in connection with this.

It is advisable to provide the results of a handwriting examination when filing a claim.

Proof

In criminal proceedings, documents are important, which can be either written evidence or material evidence. It is physical evidence that can be the document on which a forged signature was discovered.

If there is the slightest doubt that the document has been endorsed by the right person, that is, that a signature has been forged, the examination is carried out by specialists who have all the necessary tools and knowledge for this.

The Criminal Code does not have an article only for forgery of a signature, but there is a provision on falsification of documents, seals, stamps and forms. At the same time, illegally affixing an “autograph” on a document for someone is part of the crime.

They forged a signature, where to go: what to do, help from a lawyer in the regions of the Russian Federation

• Altai (republic) Gorno-Altaisk

Rules of law

More than one article of the Criminal Code relates to this act. Forgery of a signature is often considered as the final stage of a violation of the law in articles of the Criminal Code:

• 142 (falsification of election documents).
• 292 (official forgery).
• 292.1 (illegal issuance of a passport, i.e. acquisition of Russian citizenship).
• 322.2 (fictitious registration of a foreign citizen).
• 324 (purchase or sale of official documents).
• 325 (theft or damage to official documents).
• 327 (forgery or production, as well as sale of documents) and other similar provisions.

Technical methods of counterfeiting

Counterfeiting techniques that use any additional means, including computer tools, are called technical.

Among them, criminologists distinguish the following:

• Redrawing in pencil followed by tracing.
• Copying - through glass, by pressing or through a copy sheet of paper.
• Transfer of coloring matter from the original to a counterfeit document using substances that have copying properties (egg white, emulsion layer of photographic paper).
• The use of computer technology - scanner and laser.

In addition to the above, a facsimile signature (signature in the form of a stamp) is also called, but not in all cases its use will be considered a crime. The use of this seal by proxy is completely legal; it is affixed to a certain type of document.

Who carries out the signature examination - review of the TOP-3 expert companies

Where can a signature be examined?

We'll give you a little hint.

1) Intersectoral Center for Forensic Expertise and Assessment

The organization is young, but actively developing. The management has assembled a good staff of experts with extensive experience in judicial and extrajudicial examination. There are specialists from various fields here.

If you need to appeal, you can order a review of the expert opinion. In the list of services offered you will also find damage, property and business assessments.

The center's expert opinions are recognized by arbitration courts, customs, tax authorities and other law enforcement agencies.

Leave a request on the website or call by phone, and your questions will be resolved as soon as possible.

2) Forensic

An experienced company, known throughout the country as a reputable institution with a professional approach to its business. Different types of examinations are carried out by highly qualified experts. Unique techniques and the most modern equipment allow us to increase the percentage of reliability of research to the maximum.

If you need an independent examination of a signature for a court, its price will not differ from similar services in other companies. You will get excellent quality by spending a minimum of money and time on research.

3) Consulting

Here you can order any independent examination - forensic, technical, transport, etc. If necessary, legal assistance is provided for individuals and legal entities.

In addition to expert services, the company provides:

• increasing the professional level of experts;
• verification of individuals and legal entities;
• certification of expert organizations and laboratories;
• arbitration proceedings.

The company is located in Moscow, but operates in all regions. Expert opinions issued by it are accepted by all courts of the Russian Federation.

Signs of a fake. Expertise

Methods for forging a signature determine the type of examination that will be carried out. First of all, if you are sure that this is a technical fake, you need to establish the following signs:

• The presence of double strokes, the angularity of rounded lines, traces of preparation - when drawing.
• Thickening of strokes downward, particles of ink on the back of the document, multidirectional movements - when copying through glass.
• Traces of ink from carbon paper in the place where the signature is located, insufficiently complete combination of the strokes of the signature itself and the strokes of the carbon paper - when copying through special paper.
• Lack of relief, uneven coloring, presence of particles of the emulsion layer of photo paper - when using materials that have increased copying ability.

Amnesty

For violations of this type of law, an amnesty is applied. But only:

• Veterans of WWII and other military operations;
• Workers of the Mayak facility who were exposed to radiation during the Chernobyl accident;
• Holders of state awards;
• Pregnant women;
• Children under 14 years of age;
• Pensioners;
• Disabled people of the first and second groups.

For women and minors, the rule is that they must be released from prison if they have served a year under Article 327.

Features of attraction

In order to bring a person under the law for forgery, you need a document on which the signature was forged, an examination and an expert’s opinion. As stated earlier, the document is physical evidence.

When deciding whether to initiate a criminal case, for example, when an accountant signs a certificate in Form 2-NDFL for a manager, some questions arise about the application of Article (usually) 327 of the Criminal Code.

If the accountant had no intent or personal interest, and if no changes were made to the document that would distort the meaning of the content, then criminal liability for forging a signature does not apply. Otherwise, if changes were made and distorted the meaning of what was written, then Article 292 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - official forgery - can be applied.

In a criminal trial, when a forgery of a signature is discovered, the examination is of decisive importance, since this will be practically the only evidence that a crime has occurred.

Arbitrage practice

Courts often pay attention to precedents in similar cases. And depending on the decisions made on them, a verdict is made on the new case. There are cases of pre-trial resolution of a conflict surrounding the forgery of a signature. In court, they often give a suspended sentence for this offense. But this does not apply to officials and other officials.

Passport forgery

Since a passport is the main document of a citizen of the Russian Federation, forgery is punishable by a maximum penalty under Article 327 of imprisonment for 2 years. This is a dangerous crime for society, especially since fake passports are usually used for other criminal activities.

When registering a car

In case of falsification of registration documents for a car, due to reluctance to deal with their registration or to hide any information, the violator has the opportunity to violate traffic rules with impunity. If the forgery of such documents is detected, punishment will be applied to him in the form of a fine or restriction of freedom.

Falsification of the purchase and sale agreement

Forgery of contracts for the sale of property causes significant damage to the injured party. In fact, this is one of the types of fraud, therefore it is punishable under Article 327.

Special factors and documents

However, it is necessary to take into account many factors that could influence the situation:

• Is the person an official?
• Whether there was criminal intent or personal interest in his actions.
• What functions were performed by the document on which the signature was forged? This is necessary to determine the existence of a crime. For example, if a document grants some right to its future owner or releases it from obligations, then punishment for forgery of a signature (document) may follow under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
• When deciding whether to prosecute, it does not matter whether a document with a forged signature was used or was just produced.

Documents that clearly grant rights or relieve responsibilities include the following:

1. Any documents on education, including certificates, certificates and certificates.
2. Pension and driver's licenses.
3. Wills, powers of attorney.
4. Patents, licenses, etc.

How do handwriting specialists work?

Before finding out exactly what nuances help law enforcement agencies find the differences between genuine and forged signatures, you need to fully understand what the difference is between fake documentation and forgeries. The first definition involves changing data in official documentation, which results in a violation of authenticity.

To put it simply, these are situations when part of the text information (or its entire volume) is edited, and as a result the document becomes invalid. A striking example of such an offense is the forgery of signatures. The illegally corrected part of the documentation in such a case is precisely the signature of the injured person.

Forged is the documentation that is drawn up in accordance with current legislative and regulatory requirements, but contains data that does not correspond to reality. If the injured person signs such a document, he becomes a victim of deception. And although the offender in this situation does not forge the signature of the victim, he in any case must be punished for fraudulent actions under the legislation of the Russian Federation (articles of criminal liability are determined in accordance with the offense).

There are fake and forged documents, and these are different concepts

Naturally, the above-mentioned distinctive features will be reflected in the final determination by the judiciary of punishment for the offense against the guilty person. It is for this reason that it is so important to make the correct conclusion about whether the document was forged or whether it was forged. This work is undertaken by handwriting specialists. How do they conduct such an examination?

Important! Initially, experts establish how the personal signature was falsified. Handwriting practice knows two ways of making forgeries: done with one’s own hand and with the help of technical equipment. The first type does not cause any particular difficulties for experts, because offenders use it more often when they cannot use a signature sample for their own purposes due to its absence on hand.

Accordingly, the counterfeit is performed by attackers either from memory, or even out of creative inspiration. It is not surprising that in this case the forged signature will differ significantly from the original due to the lack of individual features (hooks, curls, etc.). Determining this type of falsification is the simplest task for a handwriting specialist.

Handwriting experts are involved in identifying a fake signature.

If we evaluate a counterfeit made using technical means, then things are much more complicated. To create such fake signatures, offenders use both the simplest copying tools and professional equipment with modern computer programs. All these methods of creating a falsified signature have one thing in common: an attacker can execute it only if he has a sample autograph of the victim.

The quality of the resulting forged signature will depend solely on the perfection of the technical devices used by the criminal:

• lead of a simple pencil (method of “redrawing”);
• specially designed glass (copying technique);
• paper used to create copies (pressure method);
• coloring substances that have the effect of creating copies (for example, emulsion from photographic paper or ordinary egg white);
• scanning or laser equipment (a technique for creating copies using a computer).

There are different ways to forge signatures, which are sometimes difficult to recognize

In the case where an attacker uses modern techniques and equipment to create a counterfeit, a specialist may need a lot of time to identify the counterfeit. And yet, no matter how hard the criminal tries and no matter what techniques he uses to deceive, a handwriting expert with sufficient experience will still be able to get to the bottom of the truth. Technical methods for creating a falsified signature have a number of distinctive features that are unique to them. This:

• drawing technique - double dashed and angular lines, roundings inherent in handwriting are practically absent;
• making copies using glass - particles of coloring pigment on paper, dashed lines have different directions, most often thickening in the lower part;
• copy paper – particles of a specific coloring pigment on the documentation, “shaky” writing (typical when the sheet is placed unevenly);
• copying substances – there are residues of the applied substance on the front side of the paper.

Only a specialist will be able to recognize a fake if it is made using various technical means

As it turned out earlier, it is the final conclusion of the handwriting expert that will be a powerful argument in determining a fair type of punishment for the defendant. However, let’s figure it out: is falsification of a signature always punishable under criminal charges? To clarify this issue, you need to look from the outside at several non-standard cases.

Forging a signature is not a crime

It should be borne in mind that an official document that has legal force, but does not provide rights and does not relieve one from obligations, is not the subject of a crime.

It is also necessary to take into account that there is Article 14 of the Criminal Code, paragraph 2, which states that such an action (inaction) is not a crime, which, although it contains signs of an act, but due to its insignificance does not pose any danger to society .

Signature for the boss

There are times in a person’s life when it is not possible to obtain the signature of the right person. This may be a minor document in the workplace that is needed here and now. Anyone who signs “for the boss” undoubtedly runs the risk that the forgery of the signature will be discovered, but there is no other way out.

As a rule, these actions are performed by an employee who has seen the boss’s signature many times, and before signing, tries it many times on a separate piece of paper.

If you look closely at the “forgery”, you will see not signs of a technical forgery of the signature, but signs of a “manual” forgery.

Today it has become so widespread that no one pays attention to it anymore. It's worth thinking about though. To avoid unpleasant situations, you can obtain oral, or better yet, written permission from your superiors to sign for him or make a high-quality facsimile.

Signature for a relative

Signing in everyday situations for someone, mainly a relative, may also not be a crime if the forgery of the signature does not entail any serious legal consequences.

For example, very often and, of course, illegally, postal workers allow relatives to receive a registered letter from the addressee. Such letters may come from tax authorities, a pension fund, from bailiffs or from the court office.

If the tax and pension authorities receive the usual information about accruals or a demand for tax payment, then from the judicial authorities and those related to this area, letters usually arrive with notification of receipt. That is why it is necessary that such letters are received by those to whom they are addressed.