law - theft

• Definition of theft


  A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it
• AR of theft 


  appropriates property belonging to another
• MR of theft


  dishonest intention of permanently depriving the other of it
• Appropriation


  It means doing something with the property that the owner has a right to do which no one else necessarily has the right to do without the owners permission
• Rights of the owner

  Selling

  Keeping

  Damaging

  Destroying

  Using
• Pitham and Henk (1997)

  • Legal point: appropriation has taken place as the right of ownership had been assumed
• R v Morris

  • Facts: price switched in supermarket
  • Legal point: he had assumed the right of the owner by doing one right
• Issue of consent


  Can a defendant appropriate an item where it has been given to them by the owner?
• Lawrence 1971

  • Facts: taxi fare was 50p - Italian student who didn’t speak English opened his wallet and driver took £6
  • Legal point: whether or not the student consented, it was still an an appropriation
• Gomez 1993


  
  

  Legal point: an act expressed or implied authorised by the owner of the goods or consented by him/her could amount to an appropriation of the goods
• R v hinks 2000


  Facts: defendant was friends with John Dolphin who was of limited intelligence - D was his main carer and v gifted d £60,000 and a new TV set - it was his inheritance from his father

  LP: consent irrelevant even if it was gifted
• Later assumption

  • It is possible for a defendant to appropriate the property after they first have it in their possession
  • For example, if you find someone else’s pay in your account, there is not an appropriation
  • If you do not return it, then there is an appropriation
• The Theft act gives free situations whether the defendant could be regarded as acting honestly


  S2(1)(a)

  S2(1)(b)

  S2(1)(c)
• S2(1)(a)


  he/she had the right law to deprive the other of it
• S2(1)(a)


  R v Holden

  F: d charged with theft of scrap tyres from workplace

  LP: as tested subjective a person was not dishonest if he/she believed reasonably or not that he/she had a legal right to the property providing that belief is genuinely held
• S2(1)(a)


  R v Robinson:

  F: defendant was owed £7 by victims wife. £5 dropped out of husbands pocket and defendant kept it.

  LP: he had an honest belief that he was entitled to the money
• S2(1)(b)


  He/she would have had the other consent if they knew of the appropriation
• S2(1)(c)


  The person to whom the property belongs to cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps
• R v small


  F: defendant took car. no petrol so filled it up police chasing after him panicked and run away

  LP: honest belief that the car was abandoned
• Test for dishonesty - Barton and Bhooth

  1. what was the defendants actual state of knowledge or belief as to the facts?
  2. Was the defendants conduct dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people?
• IPD - R v Easom 1971


  F: defendant picked up handbag and rummage through it replaced it but didn’t take anything

  LP: there may have been a conditional intention to deprive permanently - not enough to satisfy

  Issue with IPD- conditional intent
• R v Elumyl 1989


  F: defendant who was company manager took £1050 from office safe

  LP: had the intention to permanently deprive the company of the money taken

  Issue with IPD: exact notes and coins
• DPP v Lavender 1994


  F: defendant took doors from council property which was being repaired and used them to repair damaged doors

  LP: the defendant intended to treat the doors as his own regardless of the council rights
• IPD - R v Lloyd 1985

  F: defendant given film by projectionist and so they can make an illegal copy. Returned in time

  LP: the goodness, the virtue, the practical value of the films to the owners had not gone out to them

  Issue with IPD: borrowing or lending
• later appropriation 


  vinall - the intention to treat the property as one's own to dispose of it, regardless of the owner's rights, is a crucial element in proving theft.
• belonging to another - possession or control

  turner - the car could be regarded as 'property belonging to another' as against the owner, since it was in the possession and control of the repairer.
• belonging to another - possession or control 


  woodman -  entered the premises to take some of this scrap and was held to have been rightly convicted of its theft.
• belonging to another - possession of control 


  R v basildon magistrates court - The items still belonged to the donor until British heart foundation took possession.
• belonging to another - proprietary interest 


  webster - defendant was in possession of the firearm and ammunition. 
• belonging to another - property received under obligation

  hall - The travel agent was not liable for theft as there was no obligation to deal with the money in a particular way under s.5(3) Theft Act 1968.
• belonging to another - property received under obligation



  klineberg and marsden - found legal obligation, customers told money was held on trust re developing a timeshare development
• belonging to another - property received under obligation



  davdige v Bunnett - held that the defendant was under a legal obligation to use the proceeds of the cheques in a particular way (for the discharge of the gas bill) and therefore they were property belonging to another by virtue of s5(3)
• belonging to another - property received by a mistake

  A-G's Ref No 1 of 1983 - It was possible for a theft conviction to arise where the defendant had not withdrawn the money. There was a legal obligation to return the money received by mistake.
• Property - personal property

  Kelly and Lindsay - that a corpse or part of a corpse cannot be property and stolen. 
• property - other tangible property

  Oxford v moss - The magistrate ruled that confidential information was not a form of property as defined by Section 4, and that confidence consisted in the right to control the publication of the proof and was a right over property rather than property in itself.
• Real property
• things which cannot be stolen
• Dishonesty - s21(a) right in law


  Holden - The question of dishonesty under the exceptions in s.2(1) Theft Act 1968 is judged entirely subjectively. It is the defendant's belief alone that counts not what he was actually permitted or forbidden from doing.
• Dishonesty - s21(a) right in law


  Robinson - the police do not owe a duty of care, in the absence of certain exceptions, to protect the public from harm by failing to prevent crime.
• s21(b) - owners consent