By the sound of it, taken to court for fraud (5)
I believe the answer is:
pseud
'fraud' is the definition.
('pseud' can be a synonym of 'fraud')
'by the sound of it taken to court' is the wordplay.
'by the sound of it' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'taken to court' becomes 'sued' ('sue' can be a synonym of 'take to court').
'sued' is a homophone of 'PSEUD'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for pseud that I've seen before include "Poseur (colloq.)" , "Pretender - fraud" , "Fake intellectual" , "Pretentious sort" , "Socially pretentious person" .)