Robbery Flashcards
Robbery
Section 234(1), Crimes Act 1961
Elements of Robbery
- Theft
- Accompanied by violence OR accompanied by threats of violence
- To any person OR property
- Used to extort the property stolen, OR to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen
Definition: ‘theft’
Section 219(1)(a), Crimes Act 1961
Dishonestly, and without claim of right, takes any property with intent to deprive the owner permanently of that property
Definition: ‘dishonestly’
Section 217, Crimes Act 1961
Dishonestly, in relation to an act or omission, means done or omitted without a belief that there was express or implied consent to, or authority for, the act or omission from a person entitled to give such consent or authority
Case law: R v Lapier
Theft (and so robbery) is complete the instant that the property is taken, even if possession by the thief is only momentary.
Case law: R v Skivington
Claim of right is a defence to theft and so a defence to robbery
Case law: R v Peat
the immediate return of the goods by the robber does not purge the offence
Case law: R v Maihi
“It is implicit in ‘accompany’ that there must be a nexus (connection or link) between the act of stealing … and a threat of violence. Both must be present.” However, the term “does not require that the act of stealing and the threat of violence be contemporaneous”.
Case law: Peneha v Police
It is sufficient that “the actions of the defendant forcibly interfere with personal freedom or amount to forcible powerful or violent action or motion producing a very marked or powerful effect tending to cause bodily injury or discomfort”
Case law: R v Broughton
A threat of violence is “the manifestation of an intention to inflict violence unless the money or property be handed over. The threat may be direct or veiled. It may be conveyed by words or conduct, or a combination of both.”
Case law: R v Pacholko
The actual presence or absence of fear on the part of the complainant is not the yardstick. It is the conduct of the accused which has to be assessed rather than ‘the strength of the nerves of the person threatened’.
