Property Offences - Theft Flashcards
Types of theft
Fraud, Burglary and Robbery
Types of theft; Fraud
- Services
- Making off
- Fraud = False rep
- Fraud = failure to disclose
- Fraud = Abuse of position
Types of theft; Burglary
9(1)a
9(1)b
Aggravated Burglary
Removing articles
Types of theft; Robbery
- S.8 Robbery
- Taking conveyance
Theft Definiton
S.1(1) Theft Act 1968; “A person is guilty of theft is he dishonestly appropriated property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it”
AR/MR of Theft Definition
AR: “Appropriates”(s.3), “Property”(s.4), “Belonging to another”(s.5)
MR: “Dishonestly” (s.2), Intention to permanently deprive (s.6)
S.4 Property
“Property” includes money and all other property, real or personal, including things in action and other intangible property
Property breakdown
Money - Duru [1947]
Intangible property - AG of Hong Kong v Chan Nai-Keung (1987)
Something illegal - R v Smith, Plummer & Haines (2011)
What is not property?
- Land s.4(2) - Gimbert [2018]
- Wild animals/plants ss.4 (3)-(4)
- Electricity - Low & Blease (1975) but s.13 Theft act 68’
- Bodyparts and corpses - Handysides case [1746]/Sharp (1857) and Kelly and Lindsay (1998)
- Confidential information - Oxford v Moss [1979
Property belongs to another where that person…
- Has possession or control of it
- Has given it to the defendant subject to an obligation
- Has given it to the defendant by mistake and D is under obligation to restore it
- Is the beneficiary of a trust to which the property is subject
Possession of something illegal
Smith (2011)
Control without possession
Woodman (1974)
Lost or abandoned property
Ricketts v Basildon Magistrates (2011)
Williams v Phillips (1957)
Property received under an obligation
S.5(2) & (3)
An obligation to deal with the property in a particular way - Hall (1972) / Klineberg & Marsden (1999)
Charity money
S.5(3) - Wain (1995)
Informal obligation
David v Bunnett (1984)
Property obtained by mistake s.5(4)
Where a person gets property by another’s mistake, and is under an obligation to make restoration (in whole or in part) of the property or its proceeds or of the value thereof, then to the extent of that obligation the property or proceeds shall be regarded (as against him) as belonging to the person entitled to restoration, and an intention not to make restoration shall be regarded accordingly as an intention to deprive that person of the property or proceeds.
Other situations
Bonner (1970)
Appropriation definition s.3(1)
Any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner.
Any assumptions of the rights of the owner
Pitham v Hehl (1977)
Morris (1984) HL
“In the context of section 3(1), the concept of appropriation in my view involves not an act expressly or impliedly authorised by the owner but an act by way of adverse interference with or usurpation of the owner’s rights.” (Lord Roskill) – nb. obiter
Appropriates is not misappropriated consent?
Lawrence v MPC [1972]
“ Belief or the absence of belief that the owner has with such knowledge consented to the appropriation is relevant to the issue of dishonesty, not to the question of whether there had been appropriation.”
Appropriation is a neutral concept, consent is irrelevant
Gomes [1992]
- No adverse interference with the owners rights are required
- Approved Lawrence & confirmed 2nd part of Morris decision was Obiter dicta
Appropriation and gifts
Hinks [2000]
- No adverse interference with the owners rights are required
- Approved Lawrence & confirmed 2nd part of Morris decision was Obiter dicta
