Robbery + agg robbery Flashcards
Define robbery, state section and penalty
S234(1): robbery is theft accompanied by violence, or threats of violence, to person or property, used to extort the property stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen.
Max 10 years imprisonment
Define theft
Dishonestly and without claim of right, taking any property with intent to deprive the owner permanently of that property or any interest in that property.
Define claim of right
Claim of right in relation to any offence means a belief at the time of the act in a proprietary or possessory right in property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed, although that belief may be based on ignorance or mistake of fact or of any matter of law other than the enactment against which the offence is alleged to have been committed.
R v skivington
Larceny (or theft) is an ingredient of robbery, and if the honest belief that a man has claim of right is a defence to larceny, then it negates one of the ingredients in the offence of robbery, without proof of which the full offence is not made out.
R v Lapier
Robbery is complete the instant the property is taken, even if possession by he thief is only momentary.
Discuss possession
Possession may be actual or constructive.
Actual possession arises where the thing in question is in a persons physical custody (Warner v Metropolitan Police Commissioner)
Constructive possession arises when something is not in a physical custody, but they have ready access to it or can exercise control over it. (Sullivan v Earl of Caithness)
Warner v Metropolitan Police Commissioner
The term possession must be given a sensible and reasonable meaning in its context, a possessor of a thing has:
- complete physical control over it.
- knowledge of its existence, it’s situation and its qualities.
Sullivan v Earl of Caithness
Possession includes “not merely those who have physical custody of firearms, but also those who have firearms under their control at their behest, even though it may be kept at another location.
Define property
Property includes real and personal property, or any estate or interest in real or personal property, money, electricity, and any debt, and any thing in action, and any othe right or interest.
What are the three cases involved with intent?
Simester and Brookbanks: principals of Criminal law
R v Mohan
R v Waaka
Simester and Brookbanks: Principals of Criminal law
A person “intends to do an action (or to bring about some consequence) if he wants to do that action (or to bring about that consequence)… and he behaves as he does because of that desire
R v Mohan
Intent involves “a decision to bring about, in so far as it lies within the accused’is power, the commission of the offence”
R v Waaka
A fleeting or passing thought is not sufficient, there must be a firm intent or a firm purpose to effect an act.
R v Maihi
It is implicit in ‘accompany’ that there must be a nexus (connection) 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”
Peneha v Police
Bag snatch:
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”.
