Arson

Question 1

Arson - Danger to Life
Section 267(1)(a) Crimes Act 1961

Answer 1

• Intentionally or recklessly
• Damages by fire or by means of any explosive
• Any property
• If he or she knows or ought to know that danger to life is likely to ensue

Question 2

Arson - No Personal Gain 
Section 267(1)(b) Crimes Act 1961

Answer 2

• Intentionally or recklessly
• Without claim of right
• Damages by fire or by means of any explosive
• Any immovable property, or any vehicle, ship or aircraft
• In which that person has no interest

Question 3

Arson - Obtain Any Benefit
Section 267(1)(c) Crimes Act 1961

Answer 3

• Intentionally
• Damages by fire or by means of any explosive
• Any immovable property, or any vehicle, ship or aircraft
• With intent to obtain any benefit,
• Or to cause loss to any person

Question 4

Arson

Section 267, Subsections 2 & 3

Answer 4

2(a) - Intentionally or recklessly and without claim of right, damages by fire or by means of any explosive any property in which that person has no interest (other than property defined in subsection 1)

2(b) - Intentionally or recklessly damages by fire or by means of any explosive any property in which that person has no interest (other than property defined in subsection 1) with intent to obtain any benefit, with intent to cause loss to any other person

3 - Intentionally damages by fire or by means of any explosive any property with reckless disregard for the safety of any other property

Question 5

Benefit

Answer 5

Any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, service or valuable consideration

Question 6

Intent

Answer 6

Deliberate Act - Specific Result

Question 7

R v Collister

Answer 7

Intent inferred by the circumstances

Question 8

Circumstantial Evidence for Intent

Answer 8

• The offenders actions and words before, during and after the event
• The surrounding circumstances
• The nature of the act itself

Question 9

Recklessness

Answer 9

Acting recklessly involves consciously and deliberately taking an unjustifiable risk.

Recklessness is a test based on the defendants appreciation of the risk of the offence and their decision to run that risk anyway.

Question 10

Cameron v R - Recklessness

Answer 10

Recklessness is established if: the defendant recognised that there was a real possibility that: his or her actions would bring about the proscribed result and/or that the proscribed circumstances existed and having regard to that risk those actions were unreasonable.

Question 11

Cameron v R - Broken Down

Answer 11

Part A - subjective, requires the defendant has recognised the risk the offence anticipates as being possible.

Part B - subject and objective, if the actions of the defendant have no social utility, the running of any risk subjectively appreciated is unreasonable and thus reckless. Where there is some social utility in the actions of the defendant, whether those actions were unreasonable will depend on “whether a reasonable and prudent person would have taken the risk”.

Question 12

R v Tipple - Recklessness

Answer 12

A deliberate decision to run the risk

Question 13

Proving Recklessness

Answer 13

1. That the defendant consciously and deliberately ran a risk
2. That the risk was one that was unreasonable to take in the circumstances as they were know to the defendant

Question 14

Damages by Fire or Explosive

Answer 14

Prosecution must prove that the specified property has been damaged by fire or explosive as a result of the defendants actions.

Although fire damage will often involve burning or charring, it is not necessary that the property is actually set alight; melting, blistering of paint, or significant smoke damage may be sufficient.

Question 15

R v Archer - Damage

Answer 15

Property may be damaged if it suffers permanent or temporary physical harm or permanent or temporary impairment of its use or value.

Question 16

Fire

Answer 16

The result of combustion, a chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen, triggered by heat. For fire to start or continue, each of the three elements - fuel, oxygen and heat - must be present in the correct proportions.

Question 17

Explosive

Answer 17

A. means any substance or mixture or combination of substances which in its normal state is capable either of decomposition at such a rapid rate as to result in an explosion or of producing a pyrotechnic

B. Includes gunpowder, nitroglycerine, dynamite, gun-cotton, blasting powder, fulminate of mercury or of other metals, coloured flares, fog signals, fuses, rockets, percussion caps, detonators, cartridges and ammunition of all descriptions.

C. Any device, contrivance, or article, which uses any substance or mixture or combination of substances to which paragraph (a) or (b) of this definition applies as an integral part of it for the purposes of producing an explosion or a ballistic or pyrotechnic effect

Does not include a firearm or fireworks.

Question 18

Property

Answer 18

Real and personal property, any estate or interest in any real or personal property (money, electricity) and any debt and any thing in action and any other right or interest.

Only tangible property is capable of being damaged directly by fire or explosive. However intangible property may be damaged indirectly, for example, information stored on a computer that becomes irretrievable when the computer is damaged by fire.

Question 19

‘Property’ Under Each Section

Answer 19

S267(1)(a) - Damage may be to any property. Matters such as the nature, value and ownership of the property are not relevant, it is the risk to another persons life that raises this offending to the highest category of arson.

S267(1)(b)&(c) - Deal only with property that is, in general, higher in value - immovable property, vehicles, ships and aircraft. It is the value of these items that raises the offending to the higher category.

Lower value property is dealt with in subsections (2) and (3) depending on the offenders intent and the risk to other property.

Question 20

Simester & Brookbanks - Knowledge

Answer 20

Knowing or correctly believing. The defendant may believe something wrongly, but cannot know something that is false.

Question 21

Danger to Life

Answer 21

In this context life means human life, and the danger must be to the life of someone other than the defendant.

Question 22

Without Claim of Right

Answer 22

A belief at the time of the act in the proprietary or possessory right in property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed.

Question 23

Nature of Belief Required for Without Claim of Right

Answer 23

1. Belief must be in a proprietary or possessory right in property
2. Belief the Defendant had proprietary or possessory right to the property
3. Belief must be held at the time of the conduct
4. The belief must be actually held by the defendant

Question 24

Immovable Property

Answer 24

Relates to buildings and land and things growing on land, such as forests. Property is considered immovable if it is currently fixed in place and unable to be moved, even though it may be possible to make it movable.

s267(1)(b) - property belonging to another person

Question 25

Vehicle, Ship, Aircraft

Answer 25

Vehicle - Contrivance equipped with wheels, tracks or revolving runners on which it moves or is moved, includes a hovercraft, a skateboard, and roller skates

Ship - Every description of vessel used in navigation, however propelled and includes any barge, lighter, dinghy or like vessel and also includes any ship belonging to or used as a ship of the armed forces of any country

Aircraft - Any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air otherwise than by the reactions of the air against the surface of the earth

Question 26

Obtain

Answer 26

Obtain or retain for himself or herself or for any other person

Question 27

Cause Loss

Answer 27

Causes financial detriment to the victim

Question 28

R v Morley - Causes Loss

Answer 28

Loss… is assessed by the extent to which the complainants position prior to the offence has been diminished or impaired

Question 29

Person

Answer 29

Person, owner, the Crown, any public body or local authority, any board or society or company and any other body of persons

Question 30

Difference Between Subsection 1(a) & (b) and 2(a)&(b)

Answer 30

The distinction is in the type of property damaged, subsection 2 deals with damage to property that is generally less valuable, in circumstances where there is no risk to life.