Arson Flashcards
Arson - Danger to Life Section 267(1)(a) Crimes Act 1961
- 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
Arson - No Personal Gain Section 267(1)(b) Crimes Act 1961
- 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
Arson - Obtain Any Benefit Section 267(1)(c) Crimes Act 1961
- 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
Arson
Section 267, Subsections 2 & 3
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
Benefit
Any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, service or valuable consideration
Intent
Deliberate Act - Specific Result
R v Collister
Intent inferred by the circumstances
Circumstantial Evidence for Intent
- The offenders actions and words before, during and after the event
- The surrounding circumstances
- The nature of the act itself
Recklessness
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.
Cameron v R - Recklessness
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.
Cameron v R - Broken Down
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”.
R v Tipple - Recklessness
A deliberate decision to run the risk
Proving Recklessness
- That the defendant consciously and deliberately ran a risk
- That the risk was one that was unreasonable to take in the circumstances as they were know to the defendant
Damages by Fire or Explosive
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.
R v Archer - Damage
Property may be damaged if it suffers permanent or temporary physical harm or permanent or temporary impairment of its use or value.
Fire
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.
Explosive
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.
Property
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.
‘Property’ Under Each Section
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.
Simester & Brookbanks - Knowledge
Knowing or correctly believing. The defendant may believe something wrongly, but cannot know something that is false.
Danger to Life
In this context life means human life, and the danger must be to the life of someone other than the defendant.
Without Claim of Right
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.
Nature of Belief Required for Without Claim of Right
- Belief must be in a proprietary or possessory right in property
- Belief the Defendant had proprietary or possessory right to the property
- Belief must be held at the time of the conduct
- The belief must be actually held by the defendant
Immovable Property
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
Vehicle, Ship, Aircraft
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
Obtain
Obtain or retain for himself or herself or for any other person
Cause Loss
Causes financial detriment to the victim
R v Morley - Causes Loss
Loss… is assessed by the extent to which the complainants position prior to the offence has been diminished or impaired
Person
Person, owner, the Crown, any public body or local authority, any board or society or company and any other body of persons
Difference Between Subsection 1(a) & (b) and 2(a)&(b)
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.
