Theft - s.1 THEFT ACT 1968

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

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Theft - s.1 THEFT ACT 1968

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