Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Theft - s.1 THEFT ACT 1968
- Dishonest s.2
- No definition in the THEFT ACT 1968
- Three negative definitions - when
you're not dishonest
- D believes he
has a right in
law to deprive
the other of it:
s.2 (1) (a)
- D believes he
would have the
other's consent if
he knew the
circumstances: s.2
(1) (b)
- D believes the
person to whom the
property belongs
cannot be found by
taking reasonable
steps: s.2 (1) (c)
- Belief has to be
genuine, but not
reasonable: SMALL
- If none of the definitions apply,
the GHOSH test is used.
- Does the jury think that Ds
actions were dishonest by the
standards of an ordinary honest
person?
- Does the jury think that D would
have though his actions would
be dishonest by those
standards?
- Appropriation s.3
- Any assumption of the
rights of an owner.
Can be any of the
rights, only have to
assume one: MORRIS.
- If property is acquired
innocently, it can later be
appropriated by D keeping
it or assuming the rights of
the owner.
- There can be an
appropriation where the
owner has consented to D
taking it: GOMEZ
- There can be an
appropriation where the
owner has legally gifted
the property: HINKS
- Property s.4
- Property includes money
and all other property,
personal and real,
including things in action
or other intangible
property: s.4 (1)
- Money means coins and banknotes
- Real property is land. This can be stolen if:
- D removes topsoil or
trees.
- D, as a tenant,
removes fixtures,
e.g. a kitchen
cupboard
- Personal property includes all
movable items, including body
parts where they have been
treated for teaching purposes:
KELLY AND LINDSAY
- Wild creatures are not
personal property
unless hey have been
tamed or are normally
kept in captivity: s.4 (4).
- Picking mushrooms,
flowers, foliage is theft if
it is taken for sale, a
reward or other
commercial use: s.4 (3).
- A thing in action is a right
enforced against another,
e.g. a right to copyright or
a trademark.
- Intangible property
refers to things
which do not exist in
a physical sense, e.g.
patent.
- Belonging to another s.5
- Any person having possession
or control of it or having any
proprietary right or interest:
s.5 (1)
- It is possible to steal your
own property if it is under
the possession or control of
someone else: TURNER No.2
- Can be in control of
something even when they
do not know it's there:
WOODMAN
- If money is handed to D
for a particular purpose,
the money still belongs to
V: s.5 (3): DAVIDGE v
BUNNETT/ HALL
- Where property is received
by mistake and there is a
legal obligation to give it
back, then it still belongs to
another:
ATTORNEY-GENERALS
REFERENCE (No 1 of 1983)
- Property does not belong to
another where it has been
abandoned.
- Intention to permanently deprive s.6
- Will have intention to
permanently deprive if he
picks property up, changed
his mind and puts the
property back: VELUMYL
- Even if they do not intend
for V to lose the property
permanently, but has the
intention to dispose: s.6
- Applies where D intends to sell v's
property back to V: DPP v
LAVENDER
- Borrowing money is not theft.
- It can be where it is for a period of time
making it an outright taking.
- Where D borrows property and intends to
return it in such a changed state that all it's
goodness, virtue or practical value has gone:
LLOYD