Arson Flashcards
Arson
Discuss - Damages by fire
R v Archer
Damages by Fire
The prosecution must prove that the specified property has been “damaged” by fire or explosive as a result of the defendant’s 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
Property may be damaged if it suffers permanent or temporary physical harm or permanent or temporary impairment of its use or value.
Arson
Define - Attempted Arson (s268 CA61)
R v Harpur
Section 268 Crimes Act 1961
Attempted arson
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who attempts to commit arson in respect of any immovable property or any vehicle, ship, or aircraft.
R v Harpur
An attempt includes “an act or omission constituting a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in his commission of the crime.”
“[The Court may] have regard to the conduct viewed cumulatively up to the point when the conduct in question stops …the defendant’s conduct [may] be considered in its entirety. Considering how much remains to be done … is always relevant, though not determinative.”
Arson
Discuss - Danger to life
“Life” in this context means human life, and the danger must be to the life of someone other than the defendant.
Arson
Define - Explosive (s2 Arms Act 83)
Explosives
Section 2 Arms Act 1983
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 effect; and
(b) Without limiting paragraph (a) of this definition, 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; and
(c) Without limiting paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this definition, 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 effect; 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.
Arson
Define - Property (s2 CA61)
Property - Section 2 Crimes Act 1961
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
Arson
Discuss - Knows / Ought to know
Knows or ought to know
Knowing means “correctly believing” … the defendant may believe something wrongly, but cannot “know” something that is false.
Simester and Brookbanks: Principles of Criminal Law
This provision involves a mixed subjective / objective test as to the defendant’s degree of knowledge.
The first question (the subjective test) is: what was the defendant thinking at the time? Did the defendant know that human life was likely to be endangered by his actions?
If there is insufficient evidence that the defendant was conscious of the risk, the next question (the objective test) is: what would a reasonable person have thought in the same circumstances? Would a reasonable person have recognised the risk?
Arson
Define - Claim of Right (s2 CA61)
Claim of Right - Section 2, Crimes Act 1961
claim of 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 may be 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.
Arson
Discuss - Immovable property
In general, it relates to buildings and land and things growing on 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 movable.
Arson Define: - Vehicle - Ship - Aircraft
(s2 CA61 Definitions)
Vehicle
Means a contrivance equipped with wheels, tracks, or revolving runners on which it moves or is moved;
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
Aircraft
Aircraft has the same meaning as in the Civil Aviation Act 1990; and includes any aircraft for the time being used as an aircraft of any of the armed forces of any country other than New Zealand
Arson
Define - Obtain (s217 CA61)
Section 217 Crimes Act 1961
obtain, in relation to any person, means obtain or retain for himself or herself or for any other person.
Arson
Define - Benefit (267(4) CA61)
In this section and in section 269, benefit means any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, service, or valuable consideration.
Arson
Discuss - cause loss
The term “loss” is not defined by statute, but in most cases will involve financial detriment to the victim.
