Arson Flashcards
267(1)(a) Crimes Act 1961
Arson with Danger to Life
(1) Everyone commits arson and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who
(a)
- 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
267(1)(b) Crimes act 1961
Arson to Immovable property to which Offender has no Interest
( 1) everyone commits arson and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who
(b)
- intentionally or recklessly
- and without claim or 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 
267(1)(c) Crimes act 1961
Arson to Immovable Property with intent to obtain benefit
(1) everyone who commits arson and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding in 14 years who
(c)
- 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 cause loss to any other person
267(2)(a) Crimes act 1961
Arson where Offender has no interest in property
(2) Everyone commits arson and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who
(a)
- intentionally or recklessly
- and without claim or right
- Damages by by fire or by means of any explosive
- any property
- in which that person has no interest (other than property referred to in subsection (1))
267(2)(b) Crimes Act 1961
Arson with intent to obtain benefit
(2) everyone who commits arson and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who
(b)
- intentionally or recklessly
- damages by fire or by means of any explosive
- any property (other than property referred to in subsection (1))
- with intent to obtain any benefit, or with intent to cause loss to any other person
267(3) Crimes Act 1961
Reckless disregard for the safety of other property
(3) Everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years who
- intentionally damages by fire or by means of any explosive
- any property
- with reckless disregard for the safety of any other property.
267(4) Crimes Act 1961
(4) In this section and in section 269, benefit means any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, Service, or valuable consideration
R v Collister
Intent can be inferred from the circumstances
Circumstantial evidence from which an offenders intent may be inferred (3 points)
The offenders actions and words before, during and after the event
The surrounding circumstances
The nature of the act it self
Cameron v R
Recklessness is established if:
(a) The defendant recognised that there was a real possibility that;
(i) His or her actions would bring about the prescribed result; and/or
(ii) that the prescribed circumstances exist; and
(b) Having regard to that risk those actions were unreasonable
Recklessness (short form definition)
Involves consciously and deliberately taking and unjustified risk
Recklessness is a test based on the defendants appreciation of the risk of the offence and their decision to run that risk anyway
R v Tipple
The court suggested as a general rule recklessness is to be given the subjective meaning. The concept is subjective in that it requires that to the offender know of, or have a conscious appreciation of the relevant risk, and it may be said that it requires a deliberate decision to run the risk.
Proving Recklessness
- That the defendant consciously and deliberately ran a risk (a subjective test)
- That the risk was one that was unreasonable to take in the circumstances as they were known to the defendant (Objective test – based on whether a reasonable person would have taken the risk).
R v Archer
Property may be damaged if it suffers permanent or temporary physical harm or permanent or temporary impairment of its use or value. 
Fire definition
Fire is the result of the process 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.
Section 2 Arms Act 1983
Explosive
Explosive -
(a) means any substance or mixture or combination of substances which in its normal state is capable either of decomposition at such rapid rate as to result in an explosion or of producing a pyrotechnic affect; and
(b) Includes gunpowder, nitroglycerin, 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; and
(c) Includes any device, contrivance, Or article, which uses any substance or mixture or combination of substances to which paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this definition applies as an integral part of it for the purposes of producing an explosion or a ballistic or pyrotechnic affect; but does not include a firearm; and
(d) Does not include any firework as defined in section 2 of the hazardous substances and New organisms act 1996
Section 2 CA 1961
Property
Property includes
Real and personal property, and 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 
Can intangible property be damaged by fire?
While the statutory Definition is wide and includes a range of intangible things, only tangible property is capable of being damaged directly by fire or explosive
However intangible property maybe damaged indirectly – for example, information stored on a computer that becomes irretrievable when the computer is damaged by fire.
What is the difference in subsections in relation to property in 267 CA 1961
Under 267(1)(a) the 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.
paragraphs (b), and (c) Deal only with property that is, in general hire in value – immovable property meaning 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 and Brookbanks
Knowing
Knowing or correctly believing.
The defendant may believe something wrongly but cannot know something that is false. 
Life
Life in this context means human life and the danger must be to the life of someone other than the defendant
Section 2 CA 1961
Claim or Right
In relation to any act, means a belief At the time of the act in a proprietary or possessory right in property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed, although that belief maybe based on ignorance or mistake of fact or of any matter of law other than the enactment against which the offence is alleged to have been committed.
Nature of Belief (4 things required to be proved)
- Belief in proprietary or possessory right in property (eg ownership or right to possess property). Includes intangible property which cannot be possessed but may be owned.
- Belief must be about rights to the ‘property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed’
- The belief must be held at the time of the conduct alleged to constitute the offence.
- The belief must actually be held by the defendant.
Immovable property 267(1)(b)
The aggravating factor under 267(1)(b) is the property belongs to someone else and is generally higher in value
‘Immovable’ is not defined in property under section 2 but in general related to buildings and land and things growing in land such as forests.
Property will be considered immovable if it is currently fixed in place and unable to be moved, even though it may be possible to make it moveable eg a relocatable building.
Sec 2 CA 1961
Vehicle
(a) Means a contrivance equipped with wheels, tracks, or revolving runners on which it moves or is moved; and
(b) includes a hovercraft, a skateboard, in-line skates, and roller skates; but
(c) Does not include:
(i) A perambulator or pushchair
(ii) A shopping or sporting trundler not propelled by mechanical power.
(ii) A wheelbarrow or hand-trolley
(v) A pedestrian- controlled lawnmower
(vi) A pedestrian-controlled agricultural machine not propelled by mechanical power
(vii) an article of furniture
(viii) a wheelchair not propelled by mechanical power
(ix) Any other contrivance specified by the rules not to be a vehicle for the purposes of this definition:
(x) any rail vehicle
Section 2 CA 1961
Ship
Ship means every description of vessel used in navigation, however propelled; and includes any barge, lighter, dinghy, raft, or like vessel; and also includes any ship belonging to or used as a ship of the Armed Forces of any country