Robbery Flashcards
Robbery is an offence under s 8 of the Theft Act 1968. In effect it is a theft which is aggravated by the use or threat of force. Section 8 states:
‘A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.’
The elements which must be proved for robbery are for the actus reus:
- theft
- force or putting or seeking to put any person in fear of force.
In addition, there are two conditions on the force and these are that it must be immediately before or at the time of the theft, and it must be in order to steal.
For the mens rea of robbery it must be proved that the defendant:
- had the MR for theft, and
- intended to use force to steal
There must be a completed theft for a robbery to have been committed. This means that all of the elements of theft have to be present.
The case of Robinson (1977) demonstrates that if the elements of theft are not complete then there cannot be robbery.
Robinson (1977) - D ran a clothing club and was owed £7 by V’s wife. D approached V and threatened him. During the struggle the man dropped a £5 note and D took it claiming he was still owed £2. D’s conviction for robbery was quashed because the trial judge had wrongly directed the jury that D believed he was entitled to get the money that way. In fact if D had a genuine belief that he had a right in law to the money, then his actions were not dishonest under s 2(1)(a) Theft Act 1968.
