Inchoate offences

Question 1

What are inchoate offences?

Answer 1

Incomplete offences, typically where some steps have been taken towards the completion of a crime.

Question 2

What are the three inchoate offences which Scots law recognises?

Answer 2

• Incitement.
• Conspiracy.
• Attempt.

Question 3

What does Sayers v HM Advocate 1982 JC 17 tell us?

Answer 3

That criminal liability for inchoate offences only arises when combined with a substantive offence e.g. attempted murder.

Question 4

Incitement.

Answer 4

It is an offence to incite another person to commit a criminal offence (Baxter v HMA 1998 JC 219).
Crime of incitement is made as soon as a person ‘invites’ another to act.

Question 5

Conspiracy.

Answer 5

“Constituted by the agreement of two or more persons to further or achieve a criminal purpose” (Maxwell v HMA 1980 JC 40).
Two forms:
1. Unlawful aims.
2. Unlawful means.
Must be evidence of an agreement. Can be inferred from actions (Coleman v HMA 1999 SLT 1261).