Association Offences

Question 1

Define - Party

s66(1) CA61

Answer 1

s66(1) CA61

(1) Every one is a party to and guilty of an offence who—
(a) actually commits the offence; or
(b) does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence; or
(c) abets any person in the commission of the offence; or
(d) incites, counsels, or procures any person to commit the offence.

Question 2

Discuss - Common Purpose (Parties s66(2) CA61

Answer 2

Where 2 or more persons form a common intention to prosecute any unlawful purpose, and to assist each other therein, each of them is a party to every offence committed by any one of them in the prosecution of the common purpose if the commission of that offence was known to be a probable consequence of the prosecution of the common purpose.

Question 3

Parties

R v Pene - intention to help

Answer 3

R v Pene
A party must intentionally help or encourage - it is insufficient if they were reckless as to whether the principal was assisted or encouraged.

Intention to help or encourage must exist.

Question 4

Parties

R v Renata - Multiple Offenders

Answer 4

R v Renata
Three offenders beat the victim to death in the car park of a tavern. The prosecution was unable to establish which blow was the fatal one or which of the three offenders administered it. The court held that where the principal offender cannot be identified, it is sufficient to prove that each individual accused must have been either the principal or a party in one of the ways contemplated by s66(1).

Question 5

Parties

Larkins v Police - Actual Proof of assistance is required

Answer 5

Larkins v Police
While it is unnecessary that the principal should be aware that he or she is being assisted, there must be proof of actual assistance. The mere commission of an act intended to have that effect is insufficient. Absence of knowledge by the principal that he is being assisted removes a common foundation for a finding of actual assistance, namely that the principal was able to
proceed with his enterprise with the additional confidence gained because his accomplice was on the lookout for unwanted intervention.

Question 6

Parties

Ashton v Police - Legal duty

Answer 6

Ashton v Police
An example of a secondary party owing a legal duty to a third person or to the general public is a person teaching another person to drive. That person is, in New Zealand, under a legal duty to take reasonable precautions, because under s156 of the Crimes Act 1961 he is deemed to be in charge of a dangerous thing.

Legal duty
The special relationship is also dependant on the person who would be a secondary party having a legal duty to act and a right or power of control over the principal offender.

Question 7

Parties

R v Russell - Special Relationship

Answer 7

R v Russell
The accused was charged with the murder of his wife and two sons. Following an argument between the accused and his wife, the wife, in the presence of the accused, allegedly jumped into a swimming pool with both children, drowning them all. The accused failed to render assistance to his wife or their children. The court held that the accused was morally bound to take active steps to save his children, but by his deliberate abstention from so doing, and by giving the encouragement and authority of his presence and approval to his wife’s act he became an aider and abettor and thus a secondary offender.

Special relationship
Where there is a special relationship and no intervention on the part of the person who would be a party, then this might amount to approval and encouragement of the principal offender’s actions.

Question 8

Parties

R v Bretts and Ridley - Common Intention

Answer 8

R v Betts and Ridley
An offence where no violence is contemplated and the principal offender in carrying out the common aim uses violence, a secondary offender taking no physical part in it would not be held liable for the violence used.

Common intention
Examples:
Where a person is a party to an agreed act with violence and the principal offender in carrying out the common aim does an act causing death, the secondary party is equally responsible in law for such violence.

Question 9

Accessory after the fact

Defence for spouses - s71(2) CA61

Answer 9

s71(2) CA61
No married person whose spouse or civil union partner has been a party to an offence shall become an accessory after the fact to that offence by doing any act to which this section applies in order to enable the spouse or civil union partner or the spouse or civil union partner and any other person who has been a party to the offence, to escape after arrest or to avoid arrest or conviction.

Question 10

Accessory after the fact

Penalty

Answer 10

O.P Life - 7 yrs
O.P 10 yrs or more - 5 yrs
O.P less than 10 yrs - 1/2 O.P

Question 11

Accessory after the fact

R v Mane (Completion of offence)

Answer 11

R v Mane

To be considered an accessory the acts done by the person must be after the completion of the offence.

Question 12

Accessory after the fact
Discuss - Knowing
R v Crooks
R v Briggs

Answer 12

Knowing / Knowledge
“Knowing” means “knowing, or correctly believing” … the belief must be a correct one, where the belief is wrong a person cannot know something:
Simester and Brookbanks: Principles of Criminal Law.

At the time of the assistance being given, an accessory must possess the knowledge that:
• an offence has been committed, and
• the person they are assisting was a party (principal or secondary) to that offence.

R v Crooks
Knowledge means actual knowledge or belief in the sense of having no real doubt that the person assisted was a party to the relevant offence. Mere suspicion of their involvement in the offence is insufficient

R v Briggs
As with a receiving charge under s246(1), knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making inquiries that would confirm the suspected truth.

Question 13

Accessory after the fact

Define - Offence s2 CA61

Answer 13

“Offence” and “crime” are words that are used interchangeably in statute, and there is no material difference between them.
They may be described as any act or omission that is punishable on conviction under any enactment, and are demarcated into four categories.

Question 14

Accessory after the fact

Proof of offence committed

Answer 14

An accessory after the fact is entitled to insist on proof that the alleged offence was committed and to challenge that proof

This rule also applies to situations where the offender has pleaded guilty to the principal offence. Despite such a plea and/or a conviction having been entered, the principal offence committed must still be proved where required.

Question 15

Accessory after the fact
Discuss:
- Receives
- Comforts
- Assists

Answer 15

• Receiving or Comforting
  Harbouring an offender or offering them shelter can be considered receiving and/or comforting, eg hiding a prison escapee in a basement.

Comforting encompasses situations where an accessory provides an offender with things such as food and clothing.

• Assists
  To assist covers a significant number of situations: providing transport, acting as a look out, identifying someone willing to purchase stolen property as a receiver, deliberately providing authorities with false information as to an offender’s whereabouts.

Giving advice, information, material or services to the offender is also captured.

Question 16

Accessory after the fact
Discuss
- Tempers with
- Actively suppresses evidence

Answer 16

Tampers means to alter the evidence against the offender.

Actively suppressing evidence encompasses acts of concealing or destroying evidence against an offender.

Question 17

Define - Attempts

s72 CA 61

Answer 17

Crimes Act 1961 - 72 Definition of attempts
(1) Every one who, having an intent to commit an offence, does or omits an act for the purpose of accomplishing his object, is guilty of an attempt to commit the offence intended, whether in the circumstances it was possible to commit the offence or not.

(2) The question whether an act done or omitted with intent to commit an offence is or is not only preparation for the commission of that offence, and too remote to constitute an attempt to commit it, is a question of law. 
(3) An act done or omitted with intent to commit an offence may constitute an attempt if it is immediately or 	proximately connected with the intended offence, whether or not there was any act unequivocally showing the intent to commit that offence.

Question 18

Attempts

R v Ring

Answer 18

R v Ring
In this case the offender’s intent was to steal property by putting his hand into the pocket of the victim. Unbeknown to the offender the pocket was empty. Despite this he was able to be convicted of attempted theft, because the intent to steal whatever property might have been discovered inside the pocket was present in his mind and demonstrated by his actions. The remaining elements were also satisfied.

The accused was seen to hustle some women on a railway platform, and he put his hand in the pocket of one of them. The woman could not be located to give evidence, and accordingly there was no evidence that there was anything in her pocket to be stolen.

Question 19

Attempts

R v Harpur

Answer 19

R v Harpur
The court may have regard to the conduct views cumulatively up to the point when the conduct in question stops. The defendants conduct may be considered in its entirety. How much is left to be done, is always relative though not determinative.

His actions need not be considered in isolation; sufficient evidence of his intent was available from the events leading up to that point.

Question 20

Attempts

Police v Jay - Physically impossible

Answer 20

Police v Jay
A man bought hedge clippings believing they were cannabis.

An act is physically or factually impossible if the act in question amounts to an offence, but the suspect is unable to commit it due to interruption, ineptitude, or any other circumstances beyond his or her control.

Question 21

Attempts

R v Donnelly - legally impossible

Answer 21

R v Donnelly
Where stolen property has been returned to the owner or legal title to any such property has been acquired by any person, it is not an offence to subsequently receive it, even though the receiver may know that the property had previously been stolen or dishonestly obtained.

Example of legally impossible act.

Question 22

Conspiracy

Defence - Conspiracy 310(3) CA61

Answer 22

s310(3) CA61
Where under this section any one is charged with conspiring to do or omit anything anywhere outside New Zealand, it is a defence to prove that the doing or omission of the act to which the conspiracy relates was not an offence under the law of the place where it was, or was to be, done or omitted.

Question 23

Conspiracy

R v Sanders

Answer 23

R v Sanders
“A conspiracy does not end with the making of the agreement. The conspiratorial agreement continues in operation and therefore in existence until it is ended by completion of its performance or abandonment or in any other manner by which agreements are discharged”.

Question 24

Conspiracy

R v White

Answer 24

R v White
Where you can prove that a suspect conspired with other parties (one or more people) whose identities are unknown, that suspect can still be convicted even if the identity of the other parties is never established and remains unknown.

Question 25

Conspiracy

Discuss - Agreement

Answer 25

The conspiratorial agreement requires the operation of both the physical and mental faculties.

The mens rea (mental intent) necessary for a conspiracy is:
• an intention of those involved to agree, and
• an intention that the relevant course of conduct should be pursued by those party to the agreement.

The actus reus (physical element) of conspiracy is the agreement between two or more people to put their common design into effect. The agreement must be made before the commission of the acts which make up the full offence and the object of the conspiracy.

The actual agreement need not warrant discussion or decision on how the offenders will actually go about the commission of the offence, a simple verbal agreement to commit the offence will suffice.

Question 26

Accessory After the Fact

Answer 26

71(1) CA61 - 1/2 O.P, 5yrs, 7yrs
- Knowing any person to be a party to an offence
- Receives, comforts, or assists that person
OR tempers with or actively suppresses any evidence against him
- In order to help him: escape after arrest
OR to avoid arrest or conviction

Question 27

Conspiracy

Answer 27

310(1) CA61 - 7 yrs (or O.P, if O.P is = or less than O.P)

• Conspires
• With any person
• To commit an offence

Question 28

Party

Answer 28

s66(1) CA61
Every one is a party to and guilty of an offence who:
a) actually commits the offence; or
b) does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence; or
c) abets any person in the commission of the offence; or
d) incites, counsels or procures any person to commit the offence