Theft

Theft

1. Theft act 1968

   • Theft Act 1978
   • Theft (amendment) act (1978)
   • Fraud Act 2006
   • A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permenantly deprivinng him of it (s.1 1

2. Appropriation (3(1)

   • Vital component of Actus reus----definition: take, acquire, obtain, grab, seize, steal, get, rob, pinch etc
   • any assumption by a person of of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this include where he has come by the property (innocently
     • rights of the owner
       • Selling it
       • destroying it
       • Using it
       • hiring it
       • possesing it
       • consuming it
       • lending it
   • or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as a owner
   • offering items for sale that belong to another person is appropriation (Pitham v Hehl)
   • grabbing a handbag is appropriation even if it falls to the floor (Corcoran v Anderson)
   • assumption of any single right will suffice (R v Morris)
   • theft can still take place even it the owner consents i.e. by decpetion (Gomez)
   • no need to show that there was consent (Lawrence)
   • immaterial whether the acts were done with the victims consent or authority (Hinks) low iq victim who lavished gifts
   • if a cheque is fake, the property is obtained by deception and thus appropriated by the buyer (Dobson v General accident and fire)
   • signing blank cheques does not assume the rights of the owner but presenting them to be cashed does (Ngan)
   • matters little where the defendant is, it matters where the act of appropriation took place (Governer of Brixton Prison ex parte Levin)
   • if property is purchased in good faith, the 'owner' is not guilty of theft (s.3(2))

3. Property s.4

   • 'includes money and all other property real or personal, including things in action and other intangible property (s.4(1)
     • Land, Currency, cars, jewellery, information, bank account, rights
       • body parts are also property (Kelly and Lindsay)
   • things that cannot be stolen
     • s4(3) wild mushrooms, flowers, fruits or foilage
       • unless it is picked for reward, sale or another commercial purpose
     • A wild untamed creature (s.4(4))
       • unless it has been reduced to possession by another person
   • Real Property
     • land, property, building, site, field, house, factory
     • can be stolen in three ways
       • trustees, representatives and liquidators can steal land if acting in breach of their confidence (s.4(2)(a)
       • something that is severed from the land e.g. bricks, turf, doors (s.(4)(2)(b)
       • tenant can steal fixtures or structures from the land he is renting if he appropriates (s.4(2)(c)
   • things in action i.e. causing anothers bank account to be debited (kohn)
   • Intangible property
     • i.e. patent

4. Belonging to another s.5

   • Section 5(1)
     • possession or control of it
       • does not have to be lawful
       • defendant can steal his own property if another person had possesion or control over it (Turner)
     • any proprietary right or interest
       • property received under an obligation will still belong to the owner s.5(3)
         • important that the defendant was obliged to deal with the property in a particular way and then failed to do so
   • property received by mistake
     • still belong to the original owner
       • obligation upon person to restore property to the original owner (s.5(4)

5. Mens Rea of theft

   • dishonestly s.2(1)
     • not dishonest if:
       • appropriates property in the belief that he has in law the right to deprive the other of it
       • appropriates property in the belief that he would have the others consent if the other knew
         • the word belief features in all 3
           • if the defendant honestly holds one of the beliefs, then he is not dishonest (Turner)
       • appropriates property in the belief that the person to whom the property belongs cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps
     • should be judgd by the jury according to standards of ordinary decent people (Feely)
     • Objective and subjective--view of the reasonable man then view of the defendant (Ghosh)
   • intention to permenantly deprive
     • his intention is to treat the thing as his own to dispose of regardless of the others rights s6(1)
       • dictoniary definition of dispose of used in Cahill
         • widened to include dealing with in DPP v Lavender
     • mere borrowing is never enough to constitute a guilty mind unless the intention to return the thing was in such a change d state that all of the
       • goodness or virtue has gone (Lloyd)