A real estate agency is vicariously liable for the fraud of a sales representative who fraudulently induces the sale of a listed property to himself, even in breach of office policy, because such conduct is an unauthorised mode of performing authorised tasks rather than an independent frolic. An employer who, upon learning of an employee's fraud, participates in negotiations to resolve the vendor's dissatisfaction without dissociating the business from the transaction ratifies the employee's conduct. Section 82(4) of the Fair Trading Act 1987 (WA) deems misleading or deceptive conduct of an employee within the scope of actual or apparent authority to be conduct of the employer.
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