basic offence
- Created by: Emma-Cargillxx
- Created on: 01-06-17 09:02
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- Basic Offence of Criminal Damage
- Basic offence for criminal damage is set out in S1 Criminal Damage Act 1971
- 'A person without lawful excuse destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to damage or destroy or being reckless as to whether the property will be destroyed or damaged.'
- Actus Reus
- Destroy or Damage
- This is not defined in the act, however old cases ruled that even slight damage was sufficient to prove damage
- Gayford V Chouler = trampling grass was held to be criminal damage
- Damage
- The word damage is now covered by a wide range of situations shown by cases
- Roe V Kingerlee
- Defendant smeared mud of police walls, this was held to be damage even though it can be cleaned off
- Roe V Kingerlee
- If there are no cost or effort involved in cleaning up, and property can still be used there will be no offence
- A Juvenile V R
- D spat on policemansunfiorm, this was held not to be damage as it could be wiped off with little effort
- A Juvenile V R
- Non-Permanent damage comes under the definition of damage, if it will cost, money, time or effort to remove then it is damage
- Hardman V Chief Constable 1986
- Painting silhouettes on pavement, council removed paints with water jets. Defendant argued damage was only temporary & paintings would of been removed by the rain and there was no need for council to use water jets, court held this was damage
- Hardman V Chief Constable 1986
- The word damage is now covered by a wide range of situations shown by cases
- Destroy
- Destroy is a much stronger word than damage meaning when the property has been made useless
- This is not defined in the act, however old cases ruled that even slight damage was sufficient to prove damage
- Property
- Property is defined in S10 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971
- Property means property of a tangible nature
- Personal Property = furniture, clothing cars
- Real Property = land
- Land is property but can't be stolen
- Intangible property cannot be damaged but can be stolen
- For criminal damage property does not include mushrooms growing wild or wild plants
- Belonging to another
- Belonging to another is set out in S10 (2)
- Property is treated as belonging to any person having....
- Control of it or Custody
- Have the Right/Interesr
- Having Charge of it
- Smith
- Cant be guilty if the property he damages or destroys is his own
- Destroy or Damage
- Mens Rea
- Defendant must destroy or damage property with intention or be reckless
- Recklessnes
- A person is reckless if they did an act which created a risk property would be destroyed
- Defendant had not given any thought to the possibility of there being any risk
- Gemmell & Richards
- Defendant can only be found guilty if they realised the risk of damage
- Gemmell & Richards
- Defendant had recognised there was some risk but decided to take the risk
- Defendant had not given any thought to the possibility of there being any risk
- Caldwell
- A person is reckless if they did an act which created a risk property would be destroyed
- Recklessnes
- Defendant must intend to destroy/ damage property belonging to another
- Pemblinton = NO
- Stray-White = Intended to do damage
- Defendant must destroy or damage property with intention or be reckless
- Without Lawful Excuse
- The act defines two lawful excuse
- defendant honestly believed that
- The owner would of consented to the damage
- Property was at risk and in need of protection so what the defendant did was reasonable in all circumstances
- Denton
- Convictionwas quashed, as defendant believed owner would have consentedthe damage
- Intoxicated Mistake
- A defence can be made even when the defendant makes a mistake when intoxicated
- Jaggard V Dickinson
- Conviction quashed, a belief can be honest even if its caused by intoxication
- If the defendant has another purpose in doing the damage then the defence is not available to him
- Hunt
- This act was not done in order to protect property which was in need of immediate protection
- Hunt
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