Using information technologies to commit theft: problems concerning the qualification
The problems concerning the criminal legal assessment of illegal acquisition of other people’s non-cash and electronic funds, responsibility for which is currently provided by several criminal law norms, are analyzed in the article. Typical situations of the theft of such funds are distinguished. Within the framework of such situations the problems and errors that arise when qualifying the offence are considered. The continuing inaccuracy in understanding the peculiarities of the elements of crimes that provide the responsibility for various forms of theft of non-cash and electronic funds leads to the incorrect qualification of the act, which indicates the need for further improvement of criminal law norms. The author substantiates the need to exclude the paragraph “g” of part 3 of Article 158, Article 159.3 and Article 159.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and, simultaneously, to introduce a separate category of crime “Using information technologies to commit theft”, covering all forms of theft committed in a certain way. In this case, the differentiation of responsibility should be carried out depending on the amount of the stolen funds.