Theft - Answer

Theft

Theft is governed by section 1 of the theft act 1968. This states that theft is the dishonest appropriation of someone else’s property with the intention to permanently deprive. Theft is split up into 5 parts.

The first 3 parts make up the actus reus. The first one of these is appropriation; this is governed by section 3 of the theft act 1968. It states that appropriation is when you treat someone else’s property as your own, not in accordance with the owners rights. A case example for this in Morris, where the D swapped labels on some meat products in a supermarket, when he swapped the labels this was classed as appropriation as he was treating the products as his own and not as the supermarkets. Another case example for appropriation is Lawrence, where the D a taxi driver took more money than he should from an Italian student who did not know the currency well, when he took more money than he was owed he was treating at his own and not in accordance with the owners rights, therefore he was held for theft.

The next part of the actus reus is property which is governed by section 4 of the Theft Act 1968, this states that was is stolen must be able to be a possession that can be owned and be in the control of someone. So things such as wildlife, land and information cannot be seen as property so cannot be stolen. A case example for this is Oxford v Moss, in this case the D ‘borrowed’ an exam that he was about to sit to find out the answers. As this is information, and information cannot be stolen this was not classed as theft. Another case example is Kelly, where the D was taking body parts from a museum to use in her art, even though it is stated that corpses and parts of corpses cannot be stolen, it was seen that these body parts were owned by the…