Fraud Bill [HL]

Suppose the information is, for example, trade secrets, and the person who has got hold of the trade secret intends not to take away anything else that could be regarded as the property of the victim, but to make a profit for himself—which may of course lead to the victim making a smaller profit because he now has a competitor which he did not have before? The same would apply if what is taken away is a list of customers. In that case, it is difficult to see how any of the other provisions in this Bill could catch that particular conduct, but is it not something that ought to be caught? Existing law would not help, unless what is taken away is something in the nature of information that is already protected by, for example, patent law.