Theft Flashcards
Definition of Theft
S1(1) Theft Act: “a person is guilty of theft if he dishonesty appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it”
Definition of Property
S4 Theft Act: “includes includes money and all other property, real or personal, including things in action and other intangible property”
Kohn 1979
Debt such as that represented by a bank account or an overdraft facility can be stolen
Smith 2011
Illegal property is property for the purposes of S4
Low v Blease
Electricity is not property
Oxford v Moss
Confidential information is not property
Kelly v Lindsay
Corpses, body parts and bodily fluids cannot be stolen. However, if the part has had work done to it then it can be stolen. Case - stolen body parts from a museum.
Yearworth v N Bristol NHS Trust
Sperm and organs for transplant can be seen as property
Things defined as “Property” that Cannot be Stolen
Mushrooms/flowers/foliage unless for commercial gain, wild animal not tamed or kept in captivity, land
Belonging to Another Defintion
S5(1) Theft Act: “property shall be regarded as belonging to any person having possession or control of it, or having in it any proprietary right or interest”
Walker
D sold V video recorder, didn’t work properly so V returned it for repairs. V then sought
legal action.!
• Held D could not be convicted of stealing the recorder, as by taking legal action D had
rescinded the contract for sale, so therefore it could not be established that it belonged to
anyone other than D himself.!
Williams v Phillips
Abandoned property cannot be stolen, but it is rare that no one is in possession or control of the property
Sullivan
Money found on a corpse was regarded as not belonging to anyone
Prosecution does not have to prove who property belongs to, only that it belongs to another
Woodman
Control: D took property from a disused factory site. V, the owner of the site, had sold the property but the purchaser had not taken it. V had erected a fence and notices to discourage trespassers. COA held that even though V had no proprietary interest in the property, because the property was on a site that V controlled, and V had demonstrated this control, D was guilty of theft.
Turner (No 2)
Control: D took his car to a garage for repair. The car was left outside the garage overnight pending collection by D the next day, but D, using a spare set of keys, drove the car away intending not to pay the bill.
It was held that the garage had sufficient control over the car to come within the phrase ‘belonging to another’. Consequently, D was convicted of stealing his own car.
Bronner
Co-owner of property can steal shared property from the other owner
A-G’s Reference (No 2 of 1982)
Directors can steal from their own company
Re Holmes
5(2): trust property belonging to anyone with a right to enforce the trust is capable of theft.
D defrauded V of funds to which V could lay claim.
The money D obtained was money he held on constructive trust and therefore it belonged to the original owner
A-G’s Ref (1 of 1983)
Belonging to another: Mistake
D found she had been overpaid by £74 and did nothing about it!
Held that she had committed theft, the property still belonged to the employer
R v Hall
S5(3) – property received from/ on account of another where D is under legal obligation to retain and deal with it in a particular way is regarded as continuing to belong to the other. travel agent took deposits from clients for holiday bookings and put that money into his general account and did not book their holidays as he said he would. Case failed, because the prosecution couldn’t prove that that money had to go to that booking/ apply it in that particular way
Cocoran v White
D ate a meal in a restaurant. He thought his friend had paid, discovered that he had not paid and left regardless. Court said it was ridiculous to say he had stolen the meal – once you’ve eaten the meal its changed hands, the property has passed and the V no longer has interest (this i now covered by MAKING OFF)
Edward v Ddin
D filled his car and then decided to drive off without paying - petrol passed into the D’s hands and V thus had no interest (now covered by MAKING OFF)
Appropriation Defintion
S3 Theft Act: “Any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner”
Briggs
Suggests that appropriation expects a physical act, D must actually do something in relation to the property, except for theft by KEEPING