Introduction

Question 1

What constitutes an attempt?

Answer 1

It refers to ‘an act that is more than merely preparatory’.

For an attempt, if the person believes he or she is committing the offence, he or she will still be regarded of having attempted the offence even if it is later proved not be possible to commit the full offence.

Question 2

When is an attempt not an attempt?

Answer 2

You cannot ‘attempt an attempt’, therefore, certain offences are excluded from the Criminal Attempts Act and thus cannot be ‘attempted’.

These include:

• summary only offences;
• conspiracy to commit an indictable offence; that is, an agreement between people to commit an offence;
  aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring or suborning the commission of an offence; an offence under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 (encouraging or assisting suicide); offences under section 4(1) (assisting offenders) or 5(1) (accepting or agreeing to accept consideration for not disclosing information about a relevant offence) of the Criminal Law Act 1967;
• low-value shoplifting (which is in effect made summary only by its value).

Question 3

Notable points…

Answer 3

(i) A person may attempt an offence that is either indictable or triable either way but summary only offences are not included.
(ii) A person cannot be charged with attempting to aid, abet, counsel, procure or suborn an offence. Suborning means to bribe or induce (someone) unlawfully or secretly to perform some misdeed or to commit a crime.
(iii) In circumstances where a person commits the full offence of aiding and abetting etc., the offender should be charged as principal to the main offence where the offence is indictable or either way.