Category: Crime

Rex v Whittaker: 1914

The Court was asked whether the defendant, a regimentary colonel accused of receiving bribes in connection with the construction of a canteen, was a ‘public officer’ within the meaning of the relevant legislation.
Held: Lawrence J said: ‘A public officer is an officer who discharges any duty in the discharge of which the public are interested, more clearly so if he is paid out of a fund provided by the public. If taxes go to supply his payment and the public have an interest in the duties he discharges, he is a public officer’.
As to the offence: ‘When an officer has to discharge a public duty in which the public is interested, to bribe that officer to act contrary to his duty is a criminal act. To induce him to show favour or abstain from showing disfavour where an impartial discharge of his duty demands that he should show no favour . . is to induce him to act contrary to his duty; where this is done corruptly it is an indictable misdemeanour at common law.’

Judges:

Lawrence J

Citations:

[1914] 3 KB 1283, 10 Cr App R 245

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Bowden (T) CACD 24-Feb-1995
The defendant, a maintenance manager, was accused of misconduct in public office. He had caused works to be carried out by other employees of the local authority on premises occupied by a friend when such works were not required under the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.414601

Rex v Threlfall: CCA 1914

The court considered an allegation of perjury under the 1911 Act, saying: ‘The section . . amounts to this, that there can be no conviction on the evidence of one witness alone; there must be one witness and something else in addition’

Citations:

[1914] 10 CAR 112

Statutes:

Perjury Act 1911 4

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Cooper CACD 5-May-2010
The defendant appealed his conviction for perjury. On being accused of using a mobile phone when driving, he claimed to have been using a hands free system. Evidence later showed that his kit had been fitted only after the date of the alleged . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.409987

Rex v Rose: 1937

Attempting to pervert the course of justice by misleading the police as to the commission of a criminal offence with the result of an arrest of an innocent party.

Citations:

[1937] 1 Jo Crim Law 171

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Cotter and Others CACD 10-May-2002
The defendants appealed against convictions for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They said that the fact that an investigation followed a false allegation was insufficient to found a complaint, and that the extent of the crime was so . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.383660

HM Advocate v Patrick Slaven and Others: 1885

Citations:

(1885) 5 Couper 694

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Cited by:

Cited – Kane v HM Advocate; MacAngus v HM Advocate HCJ 27-Jan-2009
The defendants appealed against convictions for culpable homicide. In each case they had supplied a drug to the victim who had then self-administered the drug and died as a consequence.
Held: The appeals failed. The court considered whether . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.332845

Regina v Leather: 1994

In considering whether a child had been abducted, no spatial or geographic element was involved; the question was whether the child was deflected by some action of the appellant from what he would, with parental consent, have been doing.

Citations:

(1994) 98 Cr App R 179

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Norman, Regina v CACD 31-Jul-2008
The defendant suffered a degenerative disease affecting his mental capacity, and at trial the issue of his fitness to plead arose.
Held: Where the issue of unfitness arose it was necessary for the court to exercise very careful case management . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.279807

Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik v Johnson: HL 1898

A manufacturer in Switzerland who sold and delivered in that country to an English trader goods manufactured according to an invention the subject of English letters patent had not thereby infringed the rights of the holder of the patent by using or vending the patent in England. In British patent law a product is not considered to be sold or disposed of in this country unless the title passes to the buyer while the goods are physically present in this jurisdiction. All jurisdiction in relation to crime is local.

Judges:

Lord Herschell, Lord Davey

Citations:

[1898] AC 200

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Oxonica Energy Ltd v Neuftec Ltd PatC 5-Sep-2008
The parties disputed the meaning of an patent and know how licence. The parties disputed whether the agreement referred to IP rights before formal patents had been granted despite the terms of the agreement.
Held: ‘The secret of drafting legal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Intellectual Property, Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.273183

Rex v Howarth: 1828

There is no need for a police officer to tell a man why he is being arrested when he must, in the circumstances of the arrest, know the reason already.

Citations:

[1828] 1 Moody 207

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Christie v Leachinsky HL 25-Mar-1947
Arrested Person must be told basis of the Arrest
Police officers appealed against a finding of false imprisonment. The plaintiff had been arrested under the 1921 Act, but this provided no power of arrest (which the appellant knew). The officers might lawfully have arrested the plaintiff for the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Police

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.259576

Hussain, Regina (on the Application of) v Crown Prosecution Service: Admn 29 Aug 2006

The claimant challenged the decision to extend his detention for questioning to 21 days.

Citations:

[2006] EWHC 2467 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Terrorism Act 2000

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Manchester Crown Court ex parte Williams and Simpson 1990
If an application to prefer a Voluntary Bill is successful there is no right of appeal, and nor can the decision be made subject to judicial review. . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Another, Ex Parte Norney and Others QBD 6-Oct-1995
The non-referral of lifers to the Parole Board till the minimum tariff had expired was unreasonable. A decision of the Parole Board, which is chaired by a High Court judge, can be the subject of judicial review. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.245351

Sierny v Director of Public Prosecutions: Admn 15 Feb 2006

An authorisation for a dispersal order under the Act must specify, if only in summary form, the grounds upon which it is made. A mere statement that an officer had grounds for making an authorisation was not sufficient. Specification of the grounds ‘informs the reader, albeit in broad terms, of the nature of the problem and the mischief at which the authorisation is aimed’. Nelson J: ‘the section is designed to ensure that there is a proper thought-out basis for making the authorisation and expressing that basis in written form, which can later be examined and challenged and which explains to the police, who may later be required to give dispersal directions, information as to the nature of the problem which gave rise to the authorisation and hence in what circumstances the need for directions may arise’.

Judges:

Hallet LK, Nelson J

Citations:

[2006] EWHC 716 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 30(4) 31(1)(c)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Singh, Regina (on the Application of) v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police CA 28-Jul-2006
Sikh protesters set out to picket a theatre production which they considered to offend their religion. The respondent used a existing ASBO dispersal order which had been obtained for other purposes, to control the demonstration.
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.240334

West Yorkshire Probation Board v Boulter: Admn 6 Oct 2005

Appeal against dismissal of charges of breaching terms of probation order by failing to attend appointments, saying that there had been no evidence of the identity of the defendant.

Judges:

Keene LJ, Poole J

Citations:

[2005] EWHC 2342 (Admin), [2006] 1 WLR 232

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.235201

Environment Agency v Armstrong Environmental Services Ltd: Admn 22 Mar 2005

Judges:

Rose LJ, Holland J

Citations:

[2005] EWHC 633 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Environmental Protection Act 1990 33(1)(a)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Skipaway Ltd v The Environment Agency Admn 5-May-2006
The defendant appealed convictions for breaches of its waste management licence, in that waste had been stored outside the edges of the storage bays. The defendant said that the material had not yet been stored, and that it had been deposited by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Environment, Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.224526

M and others v HM Treasury: Admn 22 Sep 2006

The claimants sought payment of benefits. They would otherwise have been entitled, and were not suspected themselves, but were family members of persons listed as suspected terrorists under the Resolution, and had been denied benefits acordingly. The court was asked whether the payment of social security benefits to families of a person who was listed would be in breach of UN Security Council Resolution.
Held: The respondent had not acted unlawfully in restricting the payment of benefits.

Judges:

Kenneth Parker QC J

Citations:

[2006] EWHC 2328 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1390 (2002)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – M and Others, Regina (on the Application Of) v Revenue and Customs and others CA 6-Mar-2007
The applicants complained that though none of them was suspected of terrorist activity, their finances had been restricted because of their family connections with Osama Bin Laden. . .
At First Instance – M, Regina (on the Application of) v Her Majestys Treasury HL 30-Apr-2008
The House referred to the ECJ a question about the implementation of UN resolutions imposing sanctions on Al-Qa’ida. . .
At First Istance – M (FC) and Others v Her Majesty’s Treasury (Common Foreign And Security Policy) ECJ 14-Jan-2010
Europa Restrictive measures directed against persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban Prohibition of making funds available for the benefit of persons and . .
At first instance – M (FC) and Others (Common Foreign And Security Policy) ECJ 29-Apr-2010
Control of Funds of Terrorist Associates
ECJ Common foreign and security policy – Restrictive measures taken against persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban – Freezing of funds and economic resources – . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Benefits, European, Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.245355

Ajodha v The State: PC 1982

(From Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago) Lord Bridge of Harwich asked: ‘. . when the prosecution proposes to tender in evidence a written statement of confession signed by the accused and the accused denies that he is the author of the statement but admits that the signature or signatures on the document are his and claims that they were obtained from him by threat or inducement, does this raise a question of law for decision by the judge as to the admissibility of the statement?’
Held: ‘(1) In the normal situation which arises at the vast majority of trials where the admissibility of a confession statement is to be challenged, defending counsel will notify prosecuting counsel that an objection to admissibility is to be raised, prosecuting counsel will not mention the statement in his opening to the jury, and at the appropriate time the judge will conduct a trial on the voir dire to decide on the admissibility of the statement; this will normally be in the absence of the jury, but only at the request or with the consent of the defence: Reg v. Anderson (1929) 21 Cr.App.R. 178. (2) Though the case for the defence raises an issue as to the voluntariness of a statement in accordance with the principles indicated earlier in this judgment, defending counsel may for tactical reasons prefer that the evidence bearing on that issue be heard before the jury, with a single cross-examination of the witnesses on both sides, even though this means that the jury hear the impugned statement whether admissible or not. If the defence adopts this tactic, it will be open to defending counsel to submit at the close of the evidence that, if the judge doubts the voluntariness of the statement, he should direct the jury to disregard it, or, if the statement is essential to sustain the prosecution case, direct an acquittal. Even in the absence of such a submission, if the judge himself forms the view that the voluntariness of the statement is in doubt, he should take the like action proprio motu. (3) It may sometimes happen that the accused himself will raise for the first time when giving evidence an issue as to the voluntariness of a statement already put in evidence by the prosecution. Here it will be a matter in the discretion of the trial judge whether to require relevant prosecution witnesses to be recalled for further cross-examination. If he does so, the issue of voluntariness should be dealt with in the same manner as indicated in paragraph (2) above.’

Judges:

Lord Bridge of Harwich

Citations:

[1982] AC 204, [1981] 2 All ER 193, [1981] 3 WLR 1

Jurisdiction:

Commonwealth

Cited by:

Explained – Thongjai v the Queen; Lee Chun-Kong v the Queen PC 5-Aug-1997
HL (Hong Kong) A challenge on the admissibility of an admission is not inconsistent with a denial that it had been made; one is question for judge, the other a question of fact for the jury. Lord Hutton aid that . .
Cited – Cletus Timothy, Dexter Reid and Sheldon Lewis v The State PC 22-Apr-1999
PC (Trinidad and Tobago) The defendants appealed their convictions for murder. They asserted that the police had extracted confessions by torture, and that other evidence had been obtained by oppression.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.244808

Regina v Boyesen: HL 1982

The House considered the meaning of possession.
Held: Lord Scarman: ‘Possession is a deceptively simple concept. It denotes a physical control or custody of a thing plus knowledge that you have it in your custody or control.’

Citations:

[1982] AC 768

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Porter, Regina v CACD 16-Mar-2006
The defendant appealed his conviction of possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children. The images had been deleted, and were irrecoverable, but they had originally been viewed through a program which created a smaller . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.242679

Nutton v Wilson: 1889

Lindley LJ spoke of a statue intended to prevent civil servants dling on behalf of their employers with companies in which they had an interest: ‘The object obviously was to prevent the conflict between interest and duty that might otherwise inevitably arise’.

Judges:

Lindley LJ

Citations:

(1889) 22 QBD 744

Cited by:

Cited – Wheatley and Another v The Commissioner of Police of the British Virgin Islands PC 4-May-2006
(The British Virgin Islands) The defendants appealed against convictions for theft and misconduct. Being civil servants they had entered in to contract with companies in which they had interests. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Administrative

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.241542

Rex v Earl Russell: HL 1901

Earl Russell was charged with an offence under section 57, namely ‘Whosoever being married shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife, whether the second marriage shall have taken place in England or Ireland or elsewhere, shall be guilty of felony.’ He was alleged to have married for a second time in Nevada in the United States of America, when his first wife was alive. It was argued on his behalf that s57 should be construed as if it prohibited only bigamous marriages occurring within the King’s dominions, upon the footing that prima facie an English statute should not be taken to apply to acts committed beyond the King’s dominions unless expressly saying so.
Held: The defence failed. A marriage in Nevada may constitute statutory bigamy punishable in England. The jurisdiction of the Imperial Parliament in the eye of a British Court extends to all persons on British territory whether foreigners or not, and to all British subjects whoever they may be; and in a British Court the meaning of an Imperial Act will be understood accordingly.
That he honestly believed his divorce valid and that he was free to remarry, was not a defence and merely went in mitigation of punishment.

Citations:

[1901] AC 446, 17 TLR 685

Statutes:

Offences Against the Person Act 1861 57

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Manuel and Others v Attorney-General; Noltcho and Others v Attorney-General ChD 7-May-1982
The plaintiffs were Indian Chiefs from Canada. They complained that the 1982 Act which granted independence to Canada, had been passed without their consent, which they said was required. They feared the loss of rights embedded by historical . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Family

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.241374

Regina v Churchill: HL 2 Jan 1967

The defendant appealed against his conviction for the common law offence of conspiracy to commit a statutory offence. The statutory offence was an offence of strict liability.
Held: The conspirator was not guilty of the offence of conspiracy if on the facts known to him the act he agreed to do was lawful.

Citations:

[1967] 2 AC 224

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Churchill v Walton CA 1967
In a criminal conspiracy to evade fuel duties, the fact that the defendant had first obtained counsel’s opinion was no defence. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Saik, Regina v HL 3-May-2006
The defendant appealed aganst his conviction for conspiracy to engage in moneylaundering. At trial he pleaded guilty subject to a qualification that he had not known that the money was the proceeds of crime, though he may have suspected that it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.241535

Regina v Reed: CACD 1982

The defendant was convicted of conspiracy after visiting potential suicides, attempting to dissuade them but then when they could not be persuaded, giving them practical assistance to commit suicide.

Citations:

[1982] Crim LR 819

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Saik, Regina v HL 3-May-2006
The defendant appealed aganst his conviction for conspiracy to engage in moneylaundering. At trial he pleaded guilty subject to a qualification that he had not known that the money was the proceeds of crime, though he may have suspected that it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.241539

Campbell v Campbell: CC 1982

(Kingston Crown Court) Two brothers, in their mother’s absence but with her permission, held an overnight party at her house. During the evening cannabis was smoked by their guests. The judge had applied Mogford. Judge Oddie: ‘To be ‘the occupier’ the person charged must be proved to have had, whether lawfully or otherwise, such an exclusive possession of the premises at the material time as to enable him to prevent the smoking of cannabis in them. Not every transient use of premises or physical ability to remove another from the premises would enable the court or jury to find the nature, extent and degree of possession sufficient for a finding that the person was the occupier of the premises. On the agreed facts the parents remained occupiers but had delegated to their sons their authority to licence the entry of guests during their absence overnight. In these circumstances the children did not become ‘occupiers’ for the purpose of an offence under the Act.’

Judges:

Judge Oddie

Citations:

[1982] Crim LR 595

Statutes:

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 89d)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Mogford 1976
(Glamorgan Assizes) The two daughters of parents who owned, but were away from, a house in South Wales had invited some friends in to smoke cannabis.
Held: The daughters could not in those circumstances properly be charged as occupiers of . .
Cited – Regina v Ben Nien Tao CACD 1976
Tao was an undergraduate at Cambridge who had occupied a room in a college hostel. He appealed a conviction for being an occupier of premises used for the smoking of cannabis.
Held: His conviction was upheld. Roskill LJ: ‘On those facts it . .

Cited by:

Cited – Read v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 20-Jun-1997
The defendant appealed against his conviction for being an occupier of premises used for smoking cannabis. The Appellant lived at the premises together with his common law wife and children as a family. On the facts the magistrates found that the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.241349

Emperor of Austria v Day and Kossuth: 1861

The defendants had printed banknotes in London. Kossuth intended to use the notes in Hungary after overthrowing the Emperor of Austria by revolution. The Emperor obtained an injunction restraining the defendants from continuing to manufacture them. The defendants appealed.
Held: The injunction was upheld. One of the defences advanced was that the injunction should be refused because the proceedings were brought to protect the Emperor’s political power and prerogatives. Lord Campbell LC:’if the suit were instituted merely to support his political power and prerogatives’ he would have denied the Emperor the right to maintain the suit.
Lord Justice Turner agreed and noted that the bill put the plaintiff’s case on three grounds: (i) violation of the rights and prerogative of the plaintiff as King of Hungary ‘by promotion of revolution and disorder and otherwise’; (ii) injury to the State of Hungary by the introduction of a spurious circulation into that kingdom; and (iii) injury to the subjects of the plaintiff by the same cause. There was no doubt that the court did not have jurisdiction to interfere on the grounds that the notes were intended to be used for the purpose of promoting revolution and disorder. He rejected the second ground saying the right of coining and issuing paper money is the prerogative of a sovereign: ‘so far, therefore, as this bill is founded upon the prerogative rights of the Plaintiff, or upon the political rights of his subjects’ the injunction should be refused: ‘the prerogative rights of sovereigns seem to me, as at present advised, to stand very much upon the same footing as acts of State and matters of that description, with which the municipal courts of this country do not and cannot interfere’.
But the court upheld the injunction on the third ground on which the bill was based. Lord Campbell was of the opinion that ‘if the acts meditated by the defendants and forbidden by this injunction were actually done, a pecuniary loss would be sustained by the plaintiff and by all his subjects, holders of the existing currency’. The court has jurisdiction to protect property from an act which, if completed, would give a right of action. Lord Justice Turner said that the third ground on which the bill was based alleged a case of injury to the subjects of the kingdom, ‘an injury not to the political but to the private rights of the plaintiff’s subjects’. He concluded: ‘I agree that the jurisdiction of this Court in a case of this nature rests upon injury to property actual or prospective, and that this Court has no jurisdiction to prevent the commission of acts which are merely criminal or merely illegal, and do not affect any rights of property, but I think there are here rights of property quite sufficient to found jurisdiction in this Court.’

Judges:

Lord Campbell LC, Lord Justice Turner

Citations:

(1861) 2 Giff 628

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Jones (Margaret), Regina v Milling and others HL 29-Mar-2006
Domestic Offence requires Domestic Defence
Each defendant sought to raise by way of defence of their otherwise criminal actions, the fact that they were attempting to prevent the commission by the government of the crime of waging an aggressive war in Iraq, and that their acts were . .
Cited – Kingdom of Spain v Christie, Manson and Woods Ltd 1986
The court questioned the basis of the cause of action asserted in Austria -v- Day. . .
Cited – RCA Corporation v Pollard CA 1982
The illegal activities of bootleggers who had made unauthorised recordings of concerts, diminished the profitability of contracts granting to the plaintiffs the exclusive right to exploit recordings by Elvis Presley.
Held: The defendant’s . .
Cited – Mbasogo, President of the State of Equatorial Guinea and Another v Logo Ltd and others CA 23-Oct-2006
Foreign Public Law Not Enforceable Here
The claimant alleged a conspiracy by the defendants for his overthrow by means of a private coup d’etat. The defendants denied that the court had jurisdiction. The claimants appealed dismissal of their claim to damages.
Held: The claims were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, International

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.239959

Regina v Dhilon (Pritpal): CACD 23 Nov 2005

The defendant appealed his conviction for escaping from lawful custody. He had been arrested, but then taken to and left at a local hospital. No officer stayed with him, and he later left and went home.
Held: His appeal succeeded. All the necessary elements of the offence had to be established. This included that the defendant believed himself to be in custody at the time. The judge’s direction did not have sufficient clarity as to the need for continuity of custody.

Citations:

Times 29-Nov-2005

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Timmis CACD 1976
The defendant had been stopped as a result of erratic driving and breathalysed. The test proving positive, the defendant was told that we would be taken in custody to a police station and he was placed in a police car. He was then left alone for . .
Cited – H v Director of Public Prosecutions CACD 2003
. .
Cited – E v Director of Public Prosecutions CACD 2002
. .
Cited – Dillon v The Queen PC 25-Jan-1982
(Jamaica) The appellant police officer had been convicted that by his negligence he had allowed two prisoners to escape from custody. Given doubt that they were in fact lawfully in custody he argued that there was an onus on the prosecution to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.236327

Regina v Whitehouse: CACD 1995

The defendant appealed his conviction of importuning his daughter to have sexual intercourse. She was under 15 at the time.
Held: Since the daughter could not at that age be guilty of such an offence, he could not be guilty either of incitement, however much that might be to be regretted.

Judges:

Scarman LJ

Citations:

(1995) 1 Cr App R 420

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Claydon CACD 9-Nov-2005
The defendant appealed his conviction for inciting a 13 year old boy to bugger him.
Held: Under fourteen, there was a common law presumption that a child under 14 was incpable of sexual intercourse, and therefore it was not possible to incite . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.236325

E v Director of Public Prosecutions: CACD 2002

Citations:

[2002] Crim LR 737

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Dhilon (Pritpal) CACD 23-Nov-2005
The defendant appealed his conviction for escaping from lawful custody. He had been arrested, but then taken to and left at a local hospital. No officer stayed with him, and he later left and went home.
Held: His appeal succeeded. All the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.236331

Regina v WR: CACD 11 Jul 2005

The court considered the addition of a charge of indecent assault to cover an allegation amounting to rape: ‘Historically, when the issue had been one of consent in a rape charge, it had always been accepted that if a girl were under the age of sixteen, and a jury were to find not guilty of rape on the issue of consent, it was open to a jury – if it accepted that the intercourse had taken place, to find on an alternative verdict a defendant guilty of indecent assault. The issue now is whether that remains still open to the jury. Until the case of R v J, [2004] 3 WLR 1019 – until the decision of the House of Lords in the case, no-one had considered that there might be a problem. But, it is submitted by Mr Hoare – to whom I am grateful for his skeleton argument and for his oral submissions – it is submitted that there had been a complete sea change as a result of the case of J. Such a sea change, which he submitted, might be thought to have resulted in irrational and incoherent decisions which might bring the law into disrepute, and adopting the view of Baroness Hale in that case the position might well be undeserved, But nonetheless technically correct, and his submission is this.
That when the matters, which are now admitted by the defendant, consist of unlawful sexual intercourse, provided that the case was brought outside the time limit for a proper prosecution for that offence, it is no longer open to the jury on the facts of unlawful sexual intercourse to convict of indecent assault. J, he says, now will affect a sea change, both procedurally and substantively, in the time honoured way in which these matters have been dealt with.

The facts of J were effectively these. That there had had been consensual sexual intercourse between a seventeen year old girl. Sorry, a seventeen year old complainant alleged that between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, she had had consensual sexual intercourse with the defendant. He had denied that but was convicted. But, submitted – at various stages both before the trial judge and at various stages of appeal – that because the prosecution had been out of time for bringing the charges of unlawful sexual intercourse, that had deliberately chosen to charge on the basis of indecent assault, it was an abuse of process for the matter to be allowed to continue. The abuse of process argument went before the trial judge and the Court of Appeal, but no doubt at the prodding of the House of Lords, the matter was slightly altered in the sense that what their lordships really considered was whether the wording of the statute allowed what had in fact happened. So, reflecting again, what had happened was this. The prosecution would have been for unlawful sexual intercourse had it been done timeously. It was too late, and quite openly the prosecution then sought to proceed by way of charges of indecent assault and made it quite clear that that was what they were going to do. And indeed, it followed a line of cases which had come before the Appeal Court, not on that point, but on the question of the sentencing which was appropriate.
The House of Lords found that where the statutory provision as here, in relation to time limits, was clear and unambiguous, the court could not decline to give effect to it on the grounds that the rationale here of the time limits might have been anachronistic, discredited or unconvincing. That Parliament must have decided there was a reason for a time limit, Parliament had not altered it and that accordingly, when the only evidence of sexual intercourse with a girl under sixteen was relied upon, the defendant could not be prosecuted for indecent assault after twelve months had elapsed. And in effect, Mr Hoare now says well that’s the situation on the facts. The prosecution on this charge of rape could not have put an alternative matter of unlawful sexual intercourse, and therefore it follows from that indecent assault cannot follow. It is really an attractive argument, but one which I do not accept.
J was concerned with specific facts as to the basis upon which the prosecution was launched. This is a case of rape. It’s a case of rape and where the issue – in terms of the time when the girl was under sixteen – the issue is one of consent in matters where the jury finds that matter occur below the age of sixteen, the issue is one of consent. It is not a case where a procedural device has been adopted to get round a time limit. There is no time limit in relation to rape and it is my judgment that the Crown is still entitled to ask the jury to consider alternative verdicts of indecent assault.’

Citations:

[2005] EWCA Crim 1907

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v J HL 14-Oct-2004
The defendant was to have been accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16. Proceedings could not be brought, because the allegation was more than a year old, and he was instead accused of indecent assault, but on the same . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234979

Re Hall: 1914

Hamilton LJ said: ‘The (suggested) distinction (between murder and manslaughter) seems to me to encourage what, I am sure, would be very noxious – a sentimental speculation as to the motives and degree of moral guilt of a person who has been unjustly convicted.’

Judges:

Hamilton LJ

Citations:

[1914] P 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – J v S T (Formerly J) CA 21-Nov-1996
The parties had married, but the male partner was a transsexual, having been born female and having undergone treatment for Gender Identity Dysphoria. After IVF treatment, the couple had a child. As the marriage broke down the truth was revealed in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.235286

Betts v Stevens: 1910

The defendant, an Automobile Association patrolman was accused of obstructing a police constable in the execution of his duty. The police had set a speed trap, and the defendant had warned approaching vehicles of the trap. At the time they were warned they were thought to have been already speeding, and the police observed this.
Held: Bastable was distinguished on the ground that the action of the patrolman obstructed the police obtaining their timings. The gist of the offence lay in the intention with which the acts complained of were done. If the intention was simply to prevent the commission of crime, no offence was committed. It was otherwise if the intention was to prevent the commission of crime only at a time when there was a danger of detection.
Lord Alverstone said: ‘In my opinion a man who, finding that a car is breaking the law, warns the driver, so that the speed of the car is slackened, and the police are thereby prevented from ascertaining the speed and so are prevented from obtaining the only evidence upon which, according to our experience, Courts will act with confidence, is obstructing the police in the execution of their duty.’
Darling J said: ‘The appellant in effect advised the drivers of those cars which were proceeding at an unlawful speed not to go on committing an unlawful act. If that advice were given simply with a view to prevent the continuance of the unlawful act and procure observance of the law, I should say that there would not be an obstruction of the police in the execution of their duty of collecting evidence beyond the point at which the appellant intervened. The gist of the offence to my mind lies in the intention with which the thing is done. In my judgment in Bastable v Little I used these words: ‘In my opinion it is quite easy to distinguish the cases where a warning is given with the object of preventing the commission of a crime from the cases in which the crime is being committed and the warning is given in order that the commission of the crime may be suspended while there is danger of detection.’ I desire to repeat those words.’

Judges:

Alverstone CJ, Darling and Bucknill JJ

Citations:

[1910] 1 KB 1, 26 TLR 5

Statutes:

Prevention of Crimes Amendment Act 1885

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Distinguished – Bastable v Little 1907
The police had set up a series of speed traps in London Road, Croydon. Mr Little occupied himself giving warning signals to drivers approaching the traps, thus ensuring that they did not exceed the speed limit. There was no evidence that the drivers . .

Cited by:

Cited – Green v Moore 1982
The respondent, a probationer police constable was convicted for obstructing police officers in the execution of their duty under s51(3) of the 1964 Act. He was a regular in a bar he knew was to be raided. He warned the landlord who complied with . .
Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions, Regina (on the Application of) v Glendinning Admn 13-Oct-2005
The defendant had been accused of obstructing a constable in the execution of his duty by warning motorists of presence of a police speed trap. The prosecutor appealed from dismissal of the charge.
Held: ‘the hand signals given by the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Road Traffic

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.235213

Regina v Sansom: CACD 2 Jan 1991

The appellants had been charged with conspiracy contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977. The court rejected the argument that the principle laid down in Somchai referred only to the common law and that it could not be applied to conspiracies charged under the Act of 1977. It should now be regarded as the law of England on this point.

Judges:

Taylor LJ

Citations:

[1991] 2 QB 130, (1991) 92 Cr App R 115

Statutes:

Criminal Law Act 1977 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Somchai Liangsiriprasert v Government of the United States of America PC 1991
(Hong Kong) Application was made for the defendant’s extradition from Hong Kong to the USA. The question was whether a conspiracy entered into outside Hong Kong with the intention of committing the criminal offence of trafficking in drugs in Hong . .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Bartle and Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and Others, ex parte Pinochet Ugarte; Regina v Evans and Similar (No 3) HL 24-Mar-1999
An application to extradite a former head of state for an offence which was not at the time an offence under English law would fail, but could proceed in respect of allegations of acts after that time. No immunity was intended for heads of state. . .
Cited – Sheppard and Another, Regina v CACD 29-Jan-2010
The defendants appealed against their convictions for publishing racially inflammatory material. They skipped bail during the trial, were convicted in their absence, and returned after being refused asylum in the US. The convictions related to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Jurisdiction

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.235353

H, Regina (on the Application of) v Crown Prosecution Service: Admn 13 Oct 2005

Appeal from conviction of being drunk and disorderly.
Held: The magistrates having found that the disorderly behaviour occurred only after arrest, the arrest for such behaviour was unlawful, and the appeal was allowed.

Judges:

Lord Justice Scott Baker The Honourable Mr Justice Owen

Citations:

[2005] EWHC 2459 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Criminal Justice Act 1967 91(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.235194

Regina v Hodgson: CACD 1973

An alternative verdict of indecent assault is available on a charge of rape.

Citations:

(1973) 57 Cr App R 502

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Timmins, Regina v CACD 15-Nov-2005
The defendant appealed conviction for indecent assault. The charge alleged assault by intercourse per vaginam with a 13 year old girl. He had been 14 years old at the time. The verdict indicated consent by the complainant.
Held: The appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234978

Regina v Less and Depalo: CACD 2 Mar 1993

The defendant appealed his conviction for cheating the public revenue.
Held: The court approved the judge’s direction to the jury as follows: ‘The next direction I have to give you is what in law is cheating the Public Revenue. To cheat, members of the jury, is defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary as: ‘To deceive or trick a person into or out of a thing’. The common law offence of cheating the Public Revenue does not necessarily require a false representation either by words or conduct. Cheating can include any form of fraudulent conduct which results in diverting money from the Revenue and in depriving the Revenue of the money to which it is entitled. It has, of course, to be fraudulent conduct. That is to say, deliberate conduct by the defendant to prejudice, or take the risk of prejudicing, the Revenue’s right to the tax in question knowing that it has no right to do so.’

Citations:

Unreported, 02 March 1993

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Approved – Regina v Hunt 1994
The defendant appealed his conviction for conspiracy to cheat the Inland Revenue was challenged on grounds which included the fact that the prosecution was unable to show that the appellant had benefited from the proceeds of the fraud.
Held: . .
Cited – Regina v Stannard CACD 1-Nov-2005
The defendant had been convicted of offences in which he had operated to purchase companies and use false debentures to evade corporation tax. Compensation had been sought under the 1988 Act. It was argued that the confiscation order should be . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234404

Dickenson v Fletcher: 1873

A penal statute should receive a strict or restrictive interpretation. Brett J said: ‘Those who contend that a penalty may be inflicted must show that the words of the Act distinctly enact that it shall be incurred under the present circumstances. They must fail if the words are merely equally capable of a construction that would, and one that would not, inflict the penalty.’

Judges:

Brett J

Citations:

(1873) LR 9 CP 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Hampstead Heath Winter Swimming Club and Another v Corporation of London and Another Admn 26-Apr-2005
Swimmers sought to be able to swim unsupervised in an open pond. The authority which owned the pond on Hampstead Heath wished to refuse permission fearing liability for any injury.
Held: It has always been a principle of the interpretation of . .
Cited – Aitken v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 23-Apr-2015
The newspaper was accused of publishing an article in breach of reporting restrictions imposed under section 33. The court now asked whether the appellant, the newspaper editor, was for these purposes, the publisher and at risk of criminal . .
Cited – British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Admn 5-Jun-2019
Abortion Time Limit statement was correct.
The Court considered ‘ the correct interpretation of the words, ‘the pregnancy has not exceeded its twenty-fourth week’ in s.1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967 ‘ The guidance was challenged as the calculations. The date of the beginning of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.231180

Regina v Roberts: CACD 1987

The court considered the situation which arose when the cases against two defendants charged with conspiracy diverged.
Held: ‘Our reading of the relevant passage in the judgment of Longman’s case really comes to this. When a judge has to sum up in a conspiracy case, involving only two accused, he has to make up his mind, on the evidence, whether or not it is possible, as a matter of law, for one of the accused to be convicted and the other acquitted. That must necessarily be a matter for the judge to decide. Once he has decided it, he must direct the jury accordingly. When he comes to decide it, a factor he should keep in mind is whether the two cases are different to a substantial degree; but that is a matter for his assessment and not for the jury’s. If it were otherwise, there would be a danger of the jury becoming confused by being invited consider two different approaches to their task. Confusion is liable, in the experience of this court, to lead to inconsistent verdicts.’

Judges:

Lawton LJ

Citations:

[1987] 78 Cr App R 41

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Testouri, Regina v CACD 2-Dec-2003
The appellant challenged his conviction for conspiracy, saying that where only two parties were alleged to have been involved, differing verdicts could not be returned.
Held: The appeal was allowed. ‘In any case where what is alleged is a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234974

Regina v Redford: CACD 1989

The court considered an allegation of cheating the public revenue.
Held: After citing Mavji: ‘Mr Ashe-Lincoln candidly conceded that if no distinction can be drawn in this context between an act and an omission, to use convenient shorthand, then this appeal fails. His submission was that this, as he would say, crucial, distinction did not fall to be considered in Hudson [1956] 40 Cr App R 55 or indeed in the case of Tonner[1985] 80 Cr.App.R.170 [1985] 1 W.L.R. 344 to which we were referred by counsel for the Crown. No doubt that is right except that in the opinion of this Court the distinction is not crucial and, where it exists, as in the instant case, does not justify a departure from the conclusions reached by the Court of Criminal Appeal in Hudson (supra). In coming to this decision we are influenced by the fact that in none of the cases or authorities such as Hawkins is the distinction between ‘deceit’ involving an act and ‘non-deceit’ involving no more than an omission canvassed or regarded as vital or indeed relevant. The distinction has always been and in our view remains between ‘frauds affecting the Crown and public at large,’ to repeat the words of Hawkins, and those which affect only individuals.’ (Lord Lane CJ)

Judges:

Lord Lane CJ

Citations:

[1989] 89 Cr App R 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Approved – Regina v Mavji CACD 1987
The court considered the offence of cheating the public revenue.
Held: Cheating might include any form of fraudulent conduct which resulted in diverting money from the revenue and depriving the revenue of money to which it was entitled. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Stannard CACD 1-Nov-2005
The defendant had been convicted of offences in which he had operated to purchase companies and use false debentures to evade corporation tax. Compensation had been sought under the 1988 Act. It was argued that the confiscation order should be . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234402

Regina v Mavji: CACD 1987

The court considered the offence of cheating the public revenue.
Held: Cheating might include any form of fraudulent conduct which resulted in diverting money from the revenue and depriving the revenue of money to which it was entitled. Michael Davies J: ‘In our judgment, ‘cheating the revenue’ can take place without any positive act of deceit or, to adopt and respectfully endorse the words of Drake J when ruling on this matter in the appellant’s first trial: ‘The common law offence of cheating does not necessarily require a false representation, either by words or conduct. Cheating can include any form of fraudulent conduct which results in diverting money away from the Revenue and in depriving the Revenue of money to which it is entitled.’ This appellant was in circumstances in which he had a statutory duty to make the VAT returns and to pay over to the Crown the VAT due. He dishonestly failed to do either. Accordingly he was guilty of cheating Her Majesty the Queen and the Public Revenue. No further act or omission required to be alleged or proved.’

Judges:

Michael Davies J

Citations:

[1987] 84 Cr App R 34, [1987] 2 All ER 758

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Approved – Regina v Redford CACD 1989
The court considered an allegation of cheating the public revenue.
Held: After citing Mavji: ‘Mr Ashe-Lincoln candidly conceded that if no distinction can be drawn in this context between an act and an omission, to use convenient shorthand, . .
Cited – Regina v Stannard CACD 1-Nov-2005
The defendant had been convicted of offences in which he had operated to purchase companies and use false debentures to evade corporation tax. Compensation had been sought under the 1988 Act. It was argued that the confiscation order should be . .
Cited – Total Network Sl v Customs and Excise Commissioners CA 31-Jan-2007
The defendants suspected a carousel VAT fraud. The defendants appealed a finding that there was a viable cause of action alleging a ‘conspiracy where the unlawful means alleged is a common law offence of cheating the public revenue’. The defendants . .
Cited – Total Network Sl v Revenue and Customs HL 12-Mar-2008
The House was asked whether an action for unlawful means conspiracy was available against a participant in a missing trader intra-community, or carousel, fraud. The company appealed a finding of liability saying that the VAT Act and Regulations . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234401

Regina v Ashton: CACD 1992

The court held that the learned judge had been wrong in directing the jury that it was a situation in which they must return the same verdict in relation to each of the co-accused where they were charged with a conspiracy.

Citations:

[1992] Crim LR 667

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Testouri, Regina v CACD 2-Dec-2003
The appellant challenged his conviction for conspiracy, saying that where only two parties were alleged to have been involved, differing verdicts could not be returned.
Held: The appeal was allowed. ‘In any case where what is alleged is a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.234975

Attorney General’s Reference (No 5 of 1980): CACD 1980

The court was asked whether a person who provides screen images derived from a video tape ‘publish[es] an obscene article’ contrary to section 2 of the 1959 Act.
Held: Such a publication came within the Act. The court rejected the defendants’ arguments that an offence under section 2 was only committed when a conventional i.e. celluloid film was ‘shown, played or projected’ onto a screen. The article was a video cassette containing magnetised tape. When it was played, electric signals caused images to be displayed on the screen. The system ‘did not involve the projection of light onto a screen’. The cassette was an article which produced pictures or sounds within the embrace of the Act. The words ‘play or project’, if not ‘show’ also, in section 1(3)(b) of the Act were wide enough to cover what happens when pictures are produced by this means.
Lawton LJ said: ‘the word ‘project’ would be apt to cover what happens when a video cassette was brought into use, because what is happening is that the electrical impulses recorded on the video tape are thrown onto the television screen by means of the use of an electric current. In ordinary parlance, they are projected on to the television screen.’ The Court recognised that it ‘should be slow to apply the words to a piece of electronic equipment which probably had not been within the contemplation of Parliament’ . . ‘but if the clear words of the statute are sufficiently wide to cover the kind of electronic device with which we are concerned in this case, the fact that that particular form of electronic device was not in the contemplation of Parliament in 1959 is an immaterial consideration. In any event in 1959 Parliament would almost certainly have had in mind the fact that electronic equipment for reproducing words and pictures was something likely to come about in the near future. In those circumstances it is not all that improbable that words were chosen which were wide enough to embrace any developments in the electronic field. But speculation as to what Parliament had in mind and what it probably had not got in mind is neither here nor there. It is the duty of this Court to consider the wording of the Act and to construe the words in it (if they are words of ordinary English usage) in the ways in which they would have been understood by ordinary literate persons at the material time, namely 1959’.

Judges:

Lawton LJ

Citations:

(1980) 72 Cr App R 71, [1981] 1 WLR 88

Statutes:

Obscene Publications Act 1959 1(2) 2

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Fellows, Arnold CACD 27-Sep-1996
Computer based digital images are ‘copies of a photograph’ sufficient for the Act, and so possession of digital entities capable of being transformed into images were such photographs. Making a file available for download, was sufficient to amount . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.229853

Regina v Jones: CACD 22 Oct 1999

Roch LJ said: ‘Trial judges are inevitably aware that the giving of a provocation direction must tend to undermine lines of defence such as those which were advanced on behalf of the appellant in this case. It is unlikely that a person who has lost control of himself is acting in defence of another. It is more likely that such a person will have intended to kill or to cause really serious physical harm. For that reason a judge should not give a direction on provocation where evidence of provoking conduct by the deceased, or evidence that such conduct caused a loss of self-control by a defendant, is minimal or fanciful. To repeat the words of Lord Steyn, there has to be evidence of ‘specific provoking conduct resulting in a loss of control’.’

Judges:

Roch LJ

Citations:

Unreported, 22 October 1999

Statutes:

Homicide Act 1957 3

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Van Dongen and Another, Regina v CACD 5-Jul-2005
The defendant brothers appealed convictions for murder. They had pleaded self defence. The injuries on the deceased suggested a substantial number of wounds were inflicted when he was in a curled up defensive post.
Held: The provocation . .
Cited – Miao, Regina v CACD 17-Nov-2003
The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder. He said that the judge should have left to the jury the issue of whether there had been provocation.
Held: The appeal failed: ‘It is for the judge to decide if there is evidence of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.228493

Regina v Doughty: CACD 6 Apr 1978

The defendant appealed his conviction for murder. He had smothered his baby son with a cushion, trying to quieten his crying. He complained that the judge had not left to the jury his defence that he was subject to a loss of self control through the extreme tiredness of having to care for his wife and son.
Held: The judge had been wrong to withhold the defence of provocation from the jury. A verdict of manslaughter was substituted.

Citations:

[1986] Crim LR 625, [1986] 83 Cr App R 319

Statutes:

Homicide Act 1957 3

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Adolphus Campbell v The State PC 20-Aug-1999
PC (Trinidad and Tobago) The defendant appealed his conviction for murder. The Board considered whether the Court of Appeal should consider additional medical evidence. He was said to have attacked the deceased, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.225461

Regina v Butt: CACD 17 Mar 2005

The defendant appealed his conviction for rape. In managing the time taken the judge had eventually limited a prolonged cross examination of the complainant.
Held: Judge’s had a clear duty to manage the time taken in a trial. The judge had been very patient, and after the time limit had been imposed, counsel had failed to make the best use of the time remaining to him. The appeal failed.

Judges:

Dyson LJ, Dobbs J, Findlay Burke QC

Citations:

Times 02-May-2005

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v McFadden CACD 1975
Unfair limitation of cross examination of witness by judge. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.226019

TRA, Regina v (Redacted Judgment): SC 13 Nov 2019

The Court considered the following question: ‘What is the correct interpretation of the term ‘person acting in an official capacity’ in section 134(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988; in particular does it include someone who acts otherwise than in a private and individual capacity for or on behalf of an organisation or body which exercises or purports to exercise the functions of government over the civilian population in the territory which it controls and in which the relevant conduct occurs?’

Judges:

Lady Hale, President, Lord Reed, Deputy President, Lord Wilson, Lord Hodge, Lord Lloyd-Jones

Citations:

[2019] UKSC 51, [2020] HLR 8, (2020) 171 BMLR 37, [2020] 2 All ER 477, [2019] WLR(D) 638

Links:

Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD

Statutes:

Criminal Justice Act 1988 134

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v DL and Another (HB) UTAA 28-Aug-2018
Housing and Council Tax Benefits – Payments That Are Eligible for HB . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.643909

Regina v Lewis: CACD 6 Apr 2005

The defendant had been convicted under the 1981 Act. The European Court of Human Rights had found that police officers had infringed his human rights by their entrapment of him into offering them counterfeit currency. He now appealed his conviction.
Held: The finding that his human rights had been infringed did not necessarily make his conviction unsafe. The defendant had pleaded guilty after receiving legal advice, and there was overwhelming evidence independent of that complained of that he had been content to supply counterfeit currency. The conviction was not unsafe.

Citations:

Times 19-May-2005, [2005] EWCA Crim 859

Statutes:

Forgery And Counterfeiting Act 1981 16(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Edwards and Lewis v United Kingdom ECHR 27-Oct-2004
E had been convicted of possession of heroin with intent to supply, and L of possession of counterfeit currency. In each case public interest certificates had been obtained to withold evidence from them. The judge had refused requests to exclude . .
Cited – Jasper v The United Kingdom ECHR 16-Feb-2000
Grand Chamber – The defendants had been convicted after the prosecution had withheld evidence from them and from the judge under public interest immunity certificates. They complained that they had not had fair trials.
Held: The right was . .

Cited by:

Cited – Dowsett v Criminal Cases Review Commission Admn 8-Jun-2007
The claimant had been convicted in 1993 of involvement in a murder. He had complained that the police had failed to disclose material which would have been of assistance to him. He had requested the Commission to take examine and pursue his appeal. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Human Rights

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.225047

Regina v Brown: CACD 2003

The court head a renewed application in person for leave to appeal a conviction for producing cannabis. The defendant sought to rely on a defence of necessity, saying that cannabis was the only way available to him to control the pain of his multiple sclerosis. The judge had been invited to rule whether, as a matter of law on the defendant’s own factual and medical evidence, there was any defence properly to be left to the jury; and, after his negative ruling, the defendant pleaded guilty and sought to appeal.
Held: The ruling was upheld.
Levesen J: ‘In this case the choice facing the applicant was not severe pain without cannabis or absence of pain with cannabis, rather it was absence of pain with adverse side effects without cannabis, and, on his account, absence of pain with minimal side effects with cannabis. The difference is restricted to the adverse side effects which, however unpleasant, could not sensibly be said to raise a prime facie possibility of serious injury, let alone one such as would overwhelm the will of the defendant. Quite apart from this point, there has to be material from which a jury could come to a conclusion that they were not sure from an objective stand point that the applicant was not acting reasonably and proportionately. The evidence makes it clear that it was possible for the applicant to control pain by conventional and legal means. These arguments are sufficient to demonstrate that the learned judge was correct to conclude that the evidence, even at its highest, was not sufficient to raise a defence to be left to the jury. Finally, the Crown argued that in order to provide prima facie evidence of a defence fit to be left to the jury there had to be material from which the jury could conclude that the causative feature of the applicant’s commission of the offence was, or may have been, extraneous to the applicant on the basis that the defence does not extend to include the subjective thought processes and emotions of the defendant: see R v Roger [1998] 1 Cr. App. R. 142, where the suicidal thoughts of a prisoner were judged to be no defence to the offence of breaking prison. Suicide or depression is an innate affliction, as are the side effects of pain relief using lawful medication.

Judges:

Kay LJ, Silber and Levesen JJ

Citations:

[2003] EWCA Crim 2637

Statutes:

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 4(2)(a)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Rodger, Rose CACD 9-Jul-1997
The two defendants escaped from Parkhurst Prison. On capture they said that as murderers, they had received notices that though they had behaved without criticism in prison, their tarriffs had been increased. They said they felt unable to face . .

Cited by:

Cited – Quayle and others v Regina, Attorney General’s Reference (No. 2 of 2004) CACD 27-May-2005
Each defendant appealed against convictions associated variously with the cultivation or possession of cannabis resin. They sought to plead medical necessity. There had been medical recommendations to move cannabis to the list of drugs which might . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.225366

Regina v Delgado: CACD 1984

The court considered the meaning of ‘supply’ under the 1971 Act: ‘Thus we are driven back to considering the word ‘supply’ in its context. The judge himself relied upon the dictionary definition, which is a fairly wide one. This court has been referred to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which gives a large number of definitions of the word ‘supply’, but they have a common feature, viz.: that in the word ‘supply’ is inherent the furnishing or providing of something which is wanted. In the judgment of this court, the word ‘supply’ in section 5(3) of the Act of 1971 covers a similarly wide range of transactions. A feature common to all of those transactions is a transfer of physical control of a drug from one person to another. In our judgment questions of the transfer of ownership or legal possession of those drugs are irrelevant to the issue whether or not there was intent to supply. ‘

Judges:

Skinner J

Citations:

[1984] 1 WLR 89

Statutes:

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 4 5

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Interfact Ltd and Another v Liverpool City Council Admn 23-May-2005
The defendants, operators of licensed sex shops, appealed convictions for offences under the Act. The shops had supplied videos rated R*18 by mail order from the shops. The Trading Standards Officer said this did not satisfy the requirement that . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.225196

Regina v Lockwood: CACD 2002

The court heard a second application in person for permission to appeal a conviction for producing cannabis. The defence was necessity. He claimed to use cannabis medicinally to relieve pain. He complained about the judge’s directions on the defence to the effect that the prosecution had to satisfy the jury that necessity was not a possibility, and that they could only convict if they rejected what the defendant said. The jury were to consider whether they were sure that he only relied on this defence after he had been told about it after his interview and it had not occurred to him beforehand, followed by a direction that ‘If you are sure that necessity played no part in this until after the interview, then he is guilty’.
Held: The ‘directions were both clear and correct. Having correctly directed them on necessity, the issue was left to the jury in terms which could not have been made clearer’.

Judges:

Mitchell and Keith JJ

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Crim 60

Statutes:

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Quayle and others v Regina, Attorney General’s Reference (No. 2 of 2004) CACD 27-May-2005
Each defendant appealed against convictions associated variously with the cultivation or possession of cannabis resin. They sought to plead medical necessity. There had been medical recommendations to move cannabis to the list of drugs which might . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.225365

Cullen v Jardine: CACD 1995

90 trees were felled by the defendant without a licence over a period of three days.
Held: May LJ: ‘It was entirely possible for magistrates to decide which trees were cut down illegally and which were not, and to impose penalties by reference to those findings. The mere fact that a number of issues may arise in the course of the trial does not turn one activity into two or more activities and thus render the information bad for duplicity . . the question of duplicity is one of fact and degree . . ‘

Judges:

May LJ

Citations:

[1995] Crim LR 668

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Tovey and Another v Regina CACD 9-Mar-2005
Each defendant appealed sentences where he had committed a series of offences and the sentence had been for specimen acts.
Held: When choosing representative offences a prosecutor should be careful to try to give the court a proper picture of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.224235

Regina v Price (Herbert): CACD 1989

A woman went to consult the defendant, a doctor, as she thought she was pregnant and did not wish to have the child. It was common ground that she told the defendant she thought she was some three months pregnant, that she desired not to have the child and that there was talk of going to Harley Street if there was any question of terminating any pregnancy. Although she exhibited most of the classic symptoms of being pregnant the defendant apparently told her that he did not think she was. The defendant suggested that she should be fitted with a Gynekoil, an IUD, according to the defendant, because she was frightened of becoming pregnant, and according to the woman, to procure an abortion. Two days later, the coil was inserted. The following day the woman went to a police surgeon who concluded she was pregnant and would shortly miscarry which she did on the following day, the foetus being some ten weeks old. The defendant was convicted by the jury of using an instrument – the Gynekoil – with intent to procure a miscarriage, contrary to section 58 of the 1861 Act.
Held: The judge had misdirected the jury in failing to warn them of the dangers of convicting the defendant on the uncorroborated evidence of the woman – she being in law an accomplice. Sachs LJ: ‘The essential issue for the jury was, did the defendant at the time that he inserted the Gynekoil with the insertion tube know or believe that [she] was pregnant and accordingly introduce the instrument with intent to produce a miscarriage, or did he, as it was his case for the defence, think that she was not pregnant and introduce it for the purpose of allaying anxieties on her behalf as regards the future.’

Judges:

Sachs LJ, Fenton Atkinson and Cusack JJ

Citations:

[1969] 1 QB 541

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina (Smeaton) v Secretary of State for Health and Others Admn 18-Apr-2002
The claimant challenged the Order as regards the prescription of the morning-after pill, asserting that the pill would cause miscarriages, and that therefore the use would be an offence under the 1861 Act.
Held: ‘SPUC’s case is that any . .
Cited – Regina v Dhingra CC 1991
(Crown Court at Birmingham) A doctor who had fitted a patient, with an IUD was charged with an offence under section 58 of the 1861 Act. Having heard medical evidence from two consultant gynaecologists and legal argument the judge withdrew the case . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Health Professions

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223716

Regina v Park: CACD 1994

The defendant had been stopped by police officers whilst driving a car which contained property stolen in burglaries. The question arose whether a statement was a confession.
Held: The court applied the interpretation of section 82(1) suggested in Sat-Bhambra. Kennedy LJ said: ‘In the current edition of Archbold (1993) at paragraph 15-293, dealing with this particular section and that authority, it is said that section 82(1) was not aimed at statements which the maker intended to be exculpatory and which were exculpatory on their face, but which could later be shown to be false or inconsistent with the maker’s evidence on oath. It seems to us that that is precisely the situation here in relation not only to the answers in which the appellant denied ownership of certain items but also in relation to those answers where he accepted ownership of certain items, and accordingly, in our judgment, neither the conversation at the roadside nor, when we come to it, the conversation in the police station yard amounted to a confession.’

Judges:

Kennedy LJ

Citations:

(1994) 99 Cr App R 270

Statutes:

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 82(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Regina v Sat-Bhambra CACD 1989
The defendant was accused of importing heroin. He challenged use of his recorded interviews saying he was suffering hypoglycaemia from his diabetes at the time. The judge excluded later interviews for this reason, but the defendant challenged the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223676

Regina v Harmer: CACD 12 Dec 2001

The defendant claimed duress saying that he had become indebted to his drugs supplier and had been forced to commit the crimes. He said he did not foresee that he might be required to commit crimes for the supplier.
Held: The court did not accept this argument: ‘We cannot accept that where a man voluntarily exposes himself to unlawful violence, duress may run if he does not foresee that under the threat of such violence he may be required to commit crimes. There is no reason in principle why that should be so.’

Judges:

May LJ, Goldring and Gross JJ

Citations:

[2002] Crim LR 401

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Followed – Regina v Heath CACD 7-Oct-1999
The appellant claimed that he had become indebted to a drug supplier, and that he had been compelled by threats of physical violence to collect the consignment of drugs which gave rise to his conviction. His defence of duress failed at trial.

Cited by:

Cited – Hasan, Regina v HL 17-Mar-2005
The House was asked two questions: the meaning of ‘confession’ for the purposes of section 76(1) of the 1984 Act, and as to the defence of duress. The defendant had been involved in burglary, being told his family would be harmed if he refused. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223673

Regina v Shepherd: CACD 2 Jan 1987

The court considered the direction to be given on a defence of duress: ‘ . . .. where a person has voluntarily, and with knowledge of its nature, joined a criminal organisation or gang which he knew might bring pressure on him to commit an offence and was an active member when he was put under such pressure, he cannot avail himself of the defence of duress.’ The jury should have been (but were not) directed to consider ‘whether the appellant could be said to have taken the risk of P’s violence simply by joining a shoplifting gang of which he [P] was a member’.

Judges:

Lord Lane CJ, Farquharson and Gatehouse JJ

Citations:

(1987) 86 Cr App R 47

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Approved – Regina v Sharpe 1987
A member of a gang of robbers sought to establish a defence of duress. The trial judge had directed the jury ‘but in my judgment the defence of duress is not available to an accused who voluntarily exposes and submits himself to illegal compulsion . . .

Cited by:

Cited – Hasan, Regina v HL 17-Mar-2005
The House was asked two questions: the meaning of ‘confession’ for the purposes of section 76(1) of the 1984 Act, and as to the defence of duress. The defendant had been involved in burglary, being told his family would be harmed if he refused. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223669

Regina v Aitken: CACD 1993

The court considered the criminality of high-spirited, ‘horseplay’ which had resulted in serious injury.

Citations:

[1993] 95 Crim App R 304

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Konzani, Regina v CACD 17-Mar-2005
The defendant appealed conviction for inflicting grievous bodily harm on three women, by having unprotected sexual intercourse knowing that he was HIV positive, but without telling the women. Each contracted HIV. The allegation was that he had . .
Cited – Regina v Brown (Anthony); Regina v Lucas; etc HL 11-Mar-1993
The appellants had been convicted of assault, after having engaged in consensual acts of sado-masochism in which they inflicted varying degreees of physical self harm. They had pleaded guilty after a ruling that the prosecution had not needed to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223660

Regina v Ali: CACD 14 Nov 1994

The appellant said he become involved in drug dealing and become indebted to his supplier, X, who had given him a gun and told him to obtain the money from a bank or building society the following day, failing which he would be killed. The appellant accordingly committed the robbery of which he was convicted. In directing the jury on the defence of duress advanced by the defendant the trial judge had said: ‘The final question is this: did he, in obtaining heroin from Mr X and supplying it to others for gain, after he knew of Mr X’s reputation for violence, voluntarily put himself in a position where he knew that he was likely to be forced by Mr X to commit a crime?’ It was argued by the appellant that the judge should have said ‘forced by Mr X to commit armed robbery’, but this was rejected, and the court held that by ‘a crime’ the jury could only have understood the judge to be referring to a crime other than drug dealing.
Held: The principle was this: ‘The crux of the matter, as it seems to us, is knowledge in the defendant of either a violent nature to the gang or the enterprise which he has joined, or a violent disposition in the person or persons involved with him in the criminal activity he voluntarily joined. In our judgment, if a defendant voluntarily participates in criminal offences with a man ‘X’, whom he knows to be of a violent disposition and likely to require him to perform other criminal acts, he cannot rely upon duress if ‘X’ does so.’

Judges:

Lord Taylor of Gosforth CJ, Alliott and Rix JJ

Citations:

[1995] Crim LR 303 (Comment), Unreported, 14 November 1994

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Hasan, Regina v HL 17-Mar-2005
The House was asked two questions: the meaning of ‘confession’ for the purposes of section 76(1) of the 1984 Act, and as to the defence of duress. The defendant had been involved in burglary, being told his family would be harmed if he refused. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223670

Regina v Hunt: CACD 1978

The defendant had been charged with setting fire to a guest room in an old people’s home. He claimed that he had done so to draw attention to a defective fire alarm system. He sought to set up a statutory defence under section 5(2) by claiming to have had a lawful excuse in doing what he did. The judge withdrew that defence. He appealed.
Held: The appeal failed. Roskill LJ said: ‘I have said that we will assume in his favour that he possessed the requisite honest belief. But in our view the question whether he was entitled to the benefit of the defence turned upon the meaning of the words ‘in order to protect property belonging to another’. It was argued that those words were subjective in concept, just like the words in the latter part of section 5(2)(b) which are subjective. We do not think that is right. The question whether or not a particular act of destruction or damage or threat of destruction or damage was done or made in order to protect property belonging to another must be, on a true construction of the statute, an objective test. Therefore we have to ask ourselves whether, whatever the state of this man’s mind and assuming an honest belief, that which he admittedly did was done in order to protect this particular property, namely the old people’s home in Hertfordshire? If one formulates the question in that way, in the view of each member of this court, for the reasons Slynn J gave during argument, it admits of only one answer: this was not done in order to protect property; it was done in order to draw attention to the defective state of the fire alarm. It was not an act which in itself did protect or was capable of protecting property.’

Judges:

Roskill LJ

Citations:

(1978) 66 Cr App R 105

Statutes:

Criminal Damage Act 1971 1(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Kelleher, Regina v CACD 20-Nov-2003
The defendant, out of strong conviction, entered an art gallery and knocked the head from a statue of Margaret Thatcher.
Held: The court examined the breadth of the defence of ‘lawful excuse’ to a charge of criminal damage, and whether a court . .
Approved – Regina v Hill and Hall CACD 1989
The defendants were separately tried for possession of an article with intent to damage property contrary to section 3. In each case the article in question was a hacksaw blade and it was the prosecution case that each of the applicants intended to . .
Cited – Chamberlain v Lindon Admn 18-Mar-1998
The appellant challenged the dismissal of his private prosecution of the defendant in destroying a new garden wall. The magistrates had found a lawful excuse in that the defendant said that the wall had been constructed to obstruct his private right . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.222705

Rex v Schama; Rex v Abramovitch: CCA 1914

Where the defendant was charged with receiving stolen goods well knowing them to be stolen, the onus of proof lies always on the prosecution. Once the prosection has established that the defendant was in possession of goods recently stolen, the jury might conclude his guilt. But if the defendant provides an explanation which the jury thought might reasonably be true, he was entitled to be acquitted even if the jury were not convinced of its truth. The prosecutor would have failed in his duty to cast doubt upon it satisfying the jury beyond reasonable doubt of his guilt.

Citations:

(1914) 84 LJKB 396, (1914) 112 LT 480, (1914) 79 JP 184, (1914) 31 TLR 88, (1914) 59 Sol Jo 288

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Woolmington v Director of Public Prosecutions HL 23-May-1935
Golden Thread of British Justice – Proof of Intent
The appellant had been convicted of the murder of his wife. She had left him and returned to live with her mother. He went to the house. He said he intended to frighten her that he would kill himself if she did not return. He wired a shotgun to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223129

Regina v Morris: CACD 1984

The defendant had with him, with intent to commit robbery, a separate object, namely two metal pipes bound together, which had the appearance of a double-barrelled shotgun.
Held: He was properly convicted of possession of an imitation firearm.

Citations:

(1984) 79 Cr App R 104

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Distinguished – Bentham, Regina v HL 10-Mar-2005
In the course of a theft, the defendant had held his fingers in his pocket so as to suggest that he had a gun. He appealed conviction for possessing an imitation firearm.
Held: ‘Rules of statutory construction have a valuable role when the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.223432

Regina v Hill and Hall: CACD 1989

The defendants were separately tried for possession of an article with intent to damage property contrary to section 3. In each case the article in question was a hacksaw blade and it was the prosecution case that each of the applicants intended to use one to cut part of the perimeter fence of a United States Naval Facility. The defence in each case was one of lawful excuse. It was put forward that the actions were aimed at forcing the United Kingdom to abandon nuclear weapons; thereby saving their own property and that of their neighbours from destruction. The trial judges directed the jury to convict on the basis, first, that the causative relationship between the acts and the alleged protection was so tenuous and nebulous the acts could not, objectively, have amounted to protection. On applications for leave to appeal against conviction it was contended that the test was a subjective one and that it should have been left to the jury as a question of fact as to what in each case the applicant believed. A further point was taken that the judge had been wrong to direct the jury to convict.
Held: The appeal failed. The objective of protection was far too remote from the intended damage to the defence establishment.
Lord Lane LCJ said: ‘There are two aspects to this type of question. The first aspect is to decide what it was that the applicant in this case, Valerie Hill, in her own mind thought. The learned judge assumed, and so do we, for the purposes of this decision, that everything she said about her reasoning was true. I have already perhaps given a sufficient outline of what it was she believed to demonstrate what is meant by that. Up to that point the test was subjective. In other words one is examining what is going on in the applicant’s mind . . Having done that the judges in the present cases and the judge particularly in the case of Valerie Hill turned to the second aspect of the case and that is this. He had to decide as a matter of law, which means objectively, whether it could be said that on those facts as believed by the applicant, snipping the strand of wire, which she intended to do, could amount to something done to protect either the applicant’s own home or the home of her adjacent friends in Pembrokeshire. . . . He decided again quite rightly in our view that that proposed act on her part was far too remote from the eventual aim at which she was targeting her actions to satisfy the test.’
. . And ‘The second half of the question was that of the immediacy of the danger. Here the wording of the Act, one reminds oneself, is as follows: She believed that ‘the property . . was in immediate need of protection . . Once again the judge had to determine whether, on the facts as stated by the applicant, there was any evidence on which it could be said that she believed there was a need of protection from immediate danger. In our view that must mean evidence that she believed that immediate action had to be taken to do something which would otherwise be a crime in order to prevent the immediate risk of something worse happening. The answers which I have read in the evidence given by this woman (and the evidence given by the other applicant was very similar) drives this Court to the conclusion, as they drove the respective judges to the conclusion, that there was no evidence on which it could be said that there was that belief.’

Judges:

Lord Lane LCJ

Citations:

[1989] 89 Cr App R 74

Statutes:

Criminal Damage Act 1971 3

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Approved – Regina v Hunt CACD 1978
The defendant had been charged with setting fire to a guest room in an old people’s home. He claimed that he had done so to draw attention to a defective fire alarm system. He sought to set up a statutory defence under section 5(2) by claiming to . .

Cited by:

Cited – Kelleher, Regina v CACD 20-Nov-2003
The defendant, out of strong conviction, entered an art gallery and knocked the head from a statue of Margaret Thatcher.
Held: The court examined the breadth of the defence of ‘lawful excuse’ to a charge of criminal damage, and whether a court . .
Cited – Regina v Jones (Margaret), Regina v Milling and others HL 29-Mar-2006
Domestic Offence requires Domestic Defence
Each defendant sought to raise by way of defence of their otherwise criminal actions, the fact that they were attempting to prevent the commission by the government of the crime of waging an aggressive war in Iraq, and that their acts were . .
Cited – Chamberlain v Lindon Admn 18-Mar-1998
The appellant challenged the dismissal of his private prosecution of the defendant in destroying a new garden wall. The magistrates had found a lawful excuse in that the defendant said that the wall had been constructed to obstruct his private right . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.222707

Foster and Another v Director of Public Prosecutions: CACD 1 Dec 2004

The child, aged 15, was living with her foster parents. The defendants took her to their address and plied her with drink. The foster parents contacted her, and she said she was returning home. When she did not return the foster parents reported her missing. The police contacted the defendants. The girl hid at the house to avoid being found, but sent a text message to her parents to say she was staying with friends and would return home. In the morning, the police returned, found her, and arrested the defendants, who now appealed convictions for abduction so as to remove the child from a person having lawful control. The defendants believed her to have been over 16.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The mens rea of the offence was an intentional detention of a child the effect of which was to remove or keep the child. Their belief as to her age meant that they did not have that mind at the time when the child was removed. The Act distinguished between removal from control and keeping a child from lawful control. After they came to know of her true age, they did nothing to remove her from the foster parents’ control, and the offence was not committed.

Judges:

Rose LJ, Pitchford J

Citations:

Times 05-Jan-2005

Statutes:

Child Abduction Act 1984 2(1)(a) 4

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Mousir CACD 1987
The defendant offered money to a 14 year old boy who was on his way home from school to return to his home. The boy continued toward his home, but the defendant committed sexual ssaults on him.
Held: The defendant’s appeal against attempted . .
Cited – In re Owens QBD 2000
. .
Cited – Regina v Leather CA 24-Mar-1993
The child abduction offence may be complete without physical removal. ‘removal from lawful control’ under the Act did not import a necessary spatial element. The issue is the removal of control. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.222517

Regina v Terry: CACD 21 Dec 2004

The prosecutor had a alleged a conspiracy basing the charge on a conversation in a car. The court rejected the admisibility of evidence of a voice recognition expert, and the defendant was acquitted on direction. He then said that in the absence of a conviction on that count, the case against him on the other counts fell. The judge found that he was not entitled to lead that he was to be presumed not to have been in the car only because those present in the car were involved in a conspiracy of which he had been acquitted.
Held: The case of Hay was inconsistent with R v Z, where the test was said to be relevance, not conclusiveness. An acquittal was not conclusive evidence of innocence save in the restricted sense of innocence at law. R v Z could not be limited to similar fact evidence. A direction based on R v Hay might be artificial and unsatisfactory. The judge had been correct and no unfairness followed.

Judges:

Auld LJ, Owen J, Hedley J

Citations:

Times 28-Dec-2004, [2005] 2 Crim App R 7

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Z (Prior acquittal) HL 22-Jun-2000
The defendant on a charge of rape had been tried and acquitted of the rape of different women on three previous occasions in three separate trials. The prosecution wished to call those three complainants to give similar fact evidence in support of . .
Cited – Sambasivam v Director of Public Prosecutions, Federation of Malaya PC 1950
(Malaya) The effect of a verdict of acquittal pronounced by a competent court after a lawful trial is not restricted to the fact that the person acquitted cannot be tried again for the same offence. It is binding and conclusive in all subsequent . .
Cited – Regina v Ollis CCCR 1900
The defendant had obtained a sum of money by giving a worthless cheque. He was indicted for having obtained the money by false pretences. His defence was that when he gave the cheque he expected a payment into his bank account in time to meet the . .
Cited – Regina v Hay CACD 1983
The court considered the effect of a prior acquittal when the Crown on a subsequent prosecution sought to rely on part of a confession, the other part of which the earlier jury had not accepted. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Robinson CACD 23-Mar-2011
Earlier Acquittal not for mention on retrial
The defendant appealed against several convictions for serious ‘historic’ sex abuse. He said that there was insufficient evidence before the court to decide that the complainant had been under 14 at the time, and that any consent was vitiated. He . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.221709

Regina v Metcalfe and Another: CACD 21 Dec 2004

The defendants appealed confiscation orders for drug trafficking where there had been a finding that of the tablets sold as ecstacy, probably only one tablet in a million was actually a class A controlled drug.
Held:The Act required there to be shown that the defendant had ‘received any payment . . . . In connection with drug trafficking.’ However the section was not designed to convert activities which wer enot drug trafficking under s1(1) into drug trafficking. To do so would sidestep the protection given by other sections.

Judges:

Hoopper LJ, Holland J, Elgan Edwards J

Citations:

Times 12-Jan-2005

Statutes:

Drug Trafficking Act 1994 63(2)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.222554

Regina v Mousir: CACD 1987

The defendant offered money to a 14 year old boy who was on his way home from school to return to his home. The boy continued toward his home, but the defendant committed sexual ssaults on him.
Held: The defendant’s appeal against attempted abduction was dismissed. Had he persuaded the boy to return with him, he would have been detained in such a way as to constitute an offence under the Act, since he would be kept out of his mother’s lawful control.

Citations:

[1987] Crim LR 561

Statutes:

Child Abduction Act 1984

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Foster and Another v Director of Public Prosecutions CACD 1-Dec-2004
The child, aged 15, was living with her foster parents. The defendants took her to their address and plied her with drink. The foster parents contacted her, and she said she was returning home. When she did not return the foster parents reported her . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.222518

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council v Bujok: HL 1990

An offence arose under the 1936 Act when a complaint was brought by an aggrieved person. A person was entitled to make a complaint under section 94 without first serving an abatement notice.

Judges:

Lord Griffiths

Citations:

[1990] 3 All ER 385, [1990] 1 WLR 1350

Statutes:

Public Health Act 1936 94

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council v Bujok CA 1989
It was not necessary first to serve an abatement notice before commencing proceedings for statutory nuisance under s99. ‘. . . It is surely repugnant to common sense that in the area of legal activity a local authority should be prosecuted by one of . .
Approved – Regina v Newham Justices, ex parte Hunt etc CA 1976
The court asked whether proceedings under s99 were civil or criminal.
Held: ‘the proper interpretation of this section [section 99] leads to the conclusion that the individual can by information invoke section 94’ The offence was under s94 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Nuisance, Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.221519

Regina v Patel (Nitin): CACD 11 Nov 2004

The defendant appealed his conviction under the 1977 Act.
Held: The judge directing a jury must require a finding that the different acts complained of had a sufficient connection with each other to form a ‘course of conduct’ within the Act. For a number of incidents to constitute a course of conduct, they must be related in type and in context.

Judges:

Maurice Kay LJ, McCombe J, David Clarke J

Citations:

Times 29-Nov-2004, [2005] 1 Cr App R 440

Statutes:

Protection form Harrassment Act 1997 2(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Lau v Director of Public Prosecutions QBD 29-Mar-2000
Two alleged incidents might be sufficient to be seen as a course of conduct and found an allegation of harassment under the Act, but any distance in time between them might suggest that they could not be seen as one course of conduct. Here a . .
Cited – Pratt v Director of Public Prosecutions QBD 21-Jun-2001
Whilst the law clearly allowed prosecutions under the Act after no more than two incidents of harassment, nevertheless, prosecutors should look to the reality of whether the acts complained of did in fact amount to a course of conduct under the Act. . .

Cited by:

Cited – James v Crown Prosecution Service Admn 4-Nov-2009
The appellant was receiving care and support from social services. He was found to have abused and threatened the team leader in telephone calls to her. He appealed against a conviction under the 1997 Act, saying that his calls did not amount to a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.220241

Regina v Deakin: CACD 1972

On a charge of handling stolen goods (on the facts), the averment of ownership was not a material averment.

Citations:

[1972] 3 All ER 803

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Iqbal v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 22-Oct-2004
Appeal against conviction for handling stolen goods – admission of statement made before officer formed suspicion of theft. The prosecution had first conducted their case on the footing that it had been the property of his employer, but then were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.219915

Southwell v Chadwick: CACD 1987

It was a reasonable excuse for a person to have in his possession a machete knife in its scabbard and a catapult for use for killing grey squirrels, so that he could obtain food for his wild birds. The court was mainly concerned as to whether the items found were dangerous per se.

Citations:

[1987] 85 Cr App R 235

Statutes:

Prevention of Crime Act 1953 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions v Patterson Admn 19-Oct-2004
Prosecutor’s appeal against dismissal of charge for possession of offensive weapon. The defendant had a butterfly knife with him when arrested. the respondent went with his father to a shopping precinct at 3 o’clock on the day concerned and that he . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.220010

Regina v El-Kurd: CACD 2001

The defendants had been charged with four conspiracies, each of which was indicted as a conspiracy to commit offences under the 1994 Act on the one hand and under the 1988 Act on the other. The crown accepted that for a conviction for the laundering of the proceeds of drug trafficking, it was necessary to prove that the money was in fact the proceeds of drug crime.
Held: The wording of each alternative depended upon whether the property was the proceeds of drug trafficking or criminal conduct.

Judges:

Latham LJ

Citations:

[2001] Crim L R 234

Statutes:

Drug Trafficking Act 1994 49(2)(b), Criminal Justice Act 1988 93C(2)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Montila and Others HL 25-Nov-2004
The defendants faced charges under the two Acts. They raised as a preliminary issue whether it is necessary for the Crown to prove that the property being converted was in fact the proceeds, in the case of the 1994 Act, of drug trafficking and, in . .
Cited – Assets Recovery Agency v Olupitan and Another QBD 8-Feb-2007
The claimant was responsible for recovering money under the 2002 Act, and alleged that the first defendant had been engaged in a mortgage fraud.
Held: To succeed in such a claim for recovery the Claimant must prove, ‘on a balance of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.219889

Regina v Owino: CACD 1996

The court considered the degree of force a defendant could use in self defence: The test of the appropriate degree of force a person was entitled to use in self-defence was not any degree of force which he believed was reasonable, however well or ill founded the belief. A jury must decide whether a defendant honestly believed that the circumstances were such as required him to use force to defend himself from an attack or threatened attack. The defendant must be charged in accordance with his honest belief, even though that belief may be mistaken. But the jury has then to decide whether the force used was reasonable in the circumstances as he believed them to be: ‘A jury must decide whether a defendant honestly believed that the circumstances were such as required him to use force to defend himself from an attack or threatened attack; the jury has then to decide whether the force used was reasonable in the circumstances.’

Judges:

Beldam LJ

Citations:

(1996) 2 Cr App R 128

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Approved – Director of Public Prosecutions v Armstrong-Braun Admn 5-Oct-1998
A building site was subject to a requirement to move great crested newts before work could proceed. The defendant, a local councillor interfered to prevent a digger destroying the land until the newts had been moved. He appealed his conviction for . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.219151

Regina v Thomas: CACD 8 Nov 2004

Magic mushrooms are not a controlled drug in their natural state, but the process of leaving them to dry was a process which made them a Class A drug, and their possession an offence.

Judges:

Rose LJ, Hallett J, Dobbs J

Citations:

Times 12-Nov-2004

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.219420

Regina v Goodman: CACD 4 Mar 2002

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Crim 903, Unreported, 4 March 2002

Statutes:

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Attorney General’s Reference (No 5 of 2002) HL 14-Oct-2004
The Attorney General sought the correct interpretation of section 17 where a court was asked as to whether evidence obtained from a telephone tapping had been taken from a public or private network. A chief constable suspected that the defendants, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.216532

Regina v Saraswati: 1989

(Criminal Court of Appeal – New South Wales) The defendant appealed convictions on counts of indecency with a child, the only evidence relied on, in relation to some counts, being evidence of full sexual intercourse. Statutory time limits precluded prosecution for unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault. It was held at trial not to be an abuse of process for the prosecution to rely on the evidence of sexual intercourse to establish the charge of indecency
Held: (Majority) The High Court applied a ‘rule that, when a statute specifically deals with a matter and makes it the subject of a condition or limitation, it excludes the right to use a general provision in the same statute to avoid that condition or limitation’. The court did not accept that when Parliament amended the relevant Act to criminalise acts of indecency it intended that general power to be used to circumvent the time limit placed on prosecutions under the specifically applicable sections of the same statute.

Judges:

Toohey J, McHugh J

Citations:

(1989) 18 NSWLR 143

Citing:

Not Followed – Regina v Blight 1903
(New Zealand) The Criminal Code in force at the time, reflecting the English, included an offence of sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, to which a one month time limit applied, and also an offence of indecent assault to which no time limit . .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v J HL 14-Oct-2004
The defendant was to have been accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16. Proceedings could not be brought, because the allegation was more than a year old, and he was instead accused of indecent assault, but on the same . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Commonwealth, Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.216525

Regina v McCormack: CACD 1969

The defendant was charged with unlawful sexual intercourse and it was held to have been correct to leave to the jury as an alternative verdict a verdict of indecent assault. It was held as ‘plain beyond argument’ that if a man inserted his finger into the vagina of a girl under 16 that would be an indecent assault in view of her age, however willing and co-operative she might be.
‘Cases vary so infinitely that one can well envisage a case where the possibility of conviction of some lesser offence has been completely ignored by both prosecution and defence – it may be that the accused has never had occasion to deal with the matter, has lost a chance of giving some evidence himself about it or calling some evidence to cover or guard against the possibility of conviction of that lesser offence – and in such a case, where there might well be prejudice to an accused, it seems to this court there must be a discretion in the trial judge whether or not to leave the lesser offence to the jury.’
Fenton Atkinson LJ: ‘It is said that the prosecution had not specifically run indecent assault as a possible verdict for the jury to consider and, therefore, that the deputy chairman had a discretion whether or not to leave that matter to the jury, and there was some discussion about that and Miss Harper [for the Crown] was submitting to the deputy chairman that it was his duty to put all the alternatives. The deputy chairman said: ‘I would like to know whether I have a discretion not to do it. Frankly, I would exercise that discretion’. In fact, he went on to decide that he had no discretion in the matter, he left the alternative of indecent assault to the jury, and the jury convicted. Indeed, on our view as to what constitutes an indecent assault on a girl under 16, and in face of the defendant’s own evidence, there was no possible answer to such a lesser charge.
The view this court has formed is that the learned Deputy Chairman did have a discretion in the matter. Cases vary so infinitely that one can well envisage a case where the possibility of conviction of some lesser offence had been completely ignored by both prosecution and defence – it may be that the defendant has never had occasion to deal with the matter, has lost a chance of calling some evidence to cover or guard against the possibility of conviction of that lesser offence – and in such case, where there might well be prejudice to a defendant, it seems to this Court there must be a discretion in the trial judge whether or not to leave the lesser offence to the jury.
But that was not the situation here, and on the facts of this case we think plainly it would have been a wrong exercise of discretion not to leave this question of indecent assault to the jury, because this was a case where the defendant himself had given evidence and had said on oath ‘True I did not have intercourse, but I did do that which amounts to an indecent assault’. In view of that perfectly plain evidence which he had given, we think the only right course for the deputy chairman to take was to do what he did and to leave that matter to the jury.’

Judges:

Fenton Atkinson LJ

Citations:

[1969] 2 QB 442, [1969] 53 Cr App R 514

Statutes:

Sexual Offences Act 1956 14(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v J HL 14-Oct-2004
The defendant was to have been accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16. Proceedings could not be brought, because the allegation was more than a year old, and he was instead accused of indecent assault, but on the same . .
Cited – Timmins, Regina v CACD 15-Nov-2005
The defendant appealed conviction for indecent assault. The charge alleged assault by intercourse per vaginam with a 13 year old girl. He had been 14 years old at the time. The verdict indicated consent by the complainant.
Held: The appeal . .
Cited – Regina v Coutts HL 19-Jul-2006
The defendant was convicted of murder. Evidence during the trial suggested a possibility of manslaughter, but neither the defence nor prosecution proposed the alternate verdict. The defendant now appealed saying that the judge had an independent . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.216528

Faulkner v Talbot: CACD 1981

An indecent assault includes an intentional touching of one person by another in circumstances of indecency, whether or not (where the person touched is a girl under 16) she consents.

Citations:

[1981] 1 WLR 1528

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v J HL 14-Oct-2004
The defendant was to have been accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16. Proceedings could not be brought, because the allegation was more than a year old, and he was instead accused of indecent assault, but on the same . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.216521

Regina v Shuck: CACD 1992

The defendant was a company officer. He gave instructions to an innocent third party which resulted in the dishonest diversion of substantial sums of the company’s money. He appealed the judge’s interpretation of the word ‘appropriation.’
Held: The meaning of appropriation still had its difficulties. If there is an intention on the part of the owner to pass all his property rights to another so that that other gets a voidable title, there is nothing left for him to appropriate. Morris was to be preferred to Lawrence if there was a conflict. The question was whether the agent had exercised independent judgment. The judges direction was correct: ‘in the final analysis, what you have to look at as amatter of common sense is who was calling the shots.’

Citations:

[1992] Crim LR 209

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Lawrence v Metropolitan Police Commissioner HL 30-Jun-1971
The defendant, a taxi driver, had without objection on the part of an Italian student asked for a fare of andpound;6 for a journey for which the correct lawful fare was 10s 6d. The taxi driver was convicted of theft. On appeal the main contention . .
Preferred – Regina v Morris (David); Anderton v Burnside HL 2-Jan-1983
The defendants had been accused of theft. One switched labels on a joint of pork in a supermarket, and the other presented the meat with the now cheaper label for purchase.
Held: The appeals were dismissed. There can be no conviction for theft . .

Cited by:

Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions v Gomez HL 3-Dec-1992
The defendant worked as a shop assistant. He had persuaded the manager to accept in payment for goods, two cheques which he knew to be stolen. The CA had decided that since the ownership of the goods was transferred on the sale, no appropriation of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214210

Regina v Southwood: CACD 1 Jul 1987

Where a car dealer had falsified the odometer on a car he was selling, a disclaimer as to the car’s mileage was ineffective to provide a defence under the 1968 Act.

Citations:

Times 01-Jul-1987, [1987] 1 WLR 1361

Statutes:

Trade Descriptions Act 1968

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Approved – Norman v Bennett 1974
The court considered the requirements to establish an offence under the 1968 Act: ‘I think that, where a false description is attached to goods, its effect can be neutralised by an express disclaimer or contradiction of the message contained in the . .

Cited by:

Cited – Alan Kenneth McKenzie Clark v Associated Newspapers Ltd PatC 21-Jan-1998
The claimant was a member of Parliament and an author. The defendant published a column which was said to give the impression that the claimant had written it. It was a parody. The claim was in passing off.
Held: The first issue was whether a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Consumer, Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214640

Leach v Rex: HL 1912

Save insofar as they are clearly and unambiguously intended to do so, statutes should not be construed so as to make alterations in the common law.

Citations:

[1912] AC 305

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Attorney-General (ex relatione Yorkshire Derwent Trust Ltd) v Brotherton HL 5-Dec-1991
The appellants owned land through which flowed the river Derwent. Attempts were to be made to restore the river to navigability. The appellants denied that any public rights existed over the river.
Held: The 1932 Act could only give rise to a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Constitutional, Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214614

Regina v Lawrence (Alan): CACD 1970

The offence created by section 1(1) of the 1968 Act involved four elements: ‘(i) a dishonest (ii) appropriation (iii) of property belonging to another (iv) with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of it.’

Judges:

Megaw LJ

Citations:

[1970] 3 All ER 933, [1970] 3 WLR 1103, [1971] 1 QB 373

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – Lawrence v Metropolitan Police Commissioner HL 30-Jun-1971
The defendant, a taxi driver, had without objection on the part of an Italian student asked for a fare of andpound;6 for a journey for which the correct lawful fare was 10s 6d. The taxi driver was convicted of theft. On appeal the main contention . .
Cited – Wheatley and Another v The Commissioner of Police of the British Virgin Islands PC 4-May-2006
(The British Virgin Islands) The defendants appealed against convictions for theft and misconduct. Being civil servants they had entered in to contract with companies in which they had interests. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214212

Regina v Greenstein; Regina v Green: CACD 1975

Meaning of dishonesty under the 1968 Act.

Citations:

[1976] 1 All ER 1, [1975] 1 WLR 1353

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Explained – Regina v McIvor CA 1982
The defendant had been refused a loan by his employers. He took the money anyway from the till and repaid it. On discovery he was charged with theft. He denied that he had been dishonest. He had always intended to repay it and had done so. He . .
Considered – Regina v Ghosh CACD 5-Apr-1982
The defendant surgeon was said to have made false claims for payment for operations, and was charged under the 1968 Act. He claimed to have been entitled to the sums claimed, and denied that he had been dishonest. The court considered the meaning of . .
Cited – Ivey v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd (T/A Crockfords) SC 25-Oct-2017
The claimant gambler sought payment of his winnings. The casino said that he had operated a system called edge-sorting to achieve the winnings, and that this was a form of cheating so as to excuse their payment. The system exploited tiny variances . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214620

Regina v Fritschy: CACD 1985

The defendant was instructed by the owner to collect a quantity of krugerrands in London and deliver them to a safe deposit in Switzerland. The defendant, having once collected the coins, took them to Switzerland and there made away with them. The judge had directed the jury if at the time he collected the coins the defendant had formed the dishonest intention of keeping them for himself he was guilty of theft.
Held: The conviction for theft was wrong on the ground, following Morris, that there had been no appropriation in England because the defendant had there taken possession of the krugerrands with the owner’s authority.

Citations:

[1985] Crim L R 745

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Regina v Morris (David); Anderton v Burnside HL 2-Jan-1983
The defendants had been accused of theft. One switched labels on a joint of pork in a supermarket, and the other presented the meat with the now cheaper label for purchase.
Held: The appeals were dismissed. There can be no conviction for theft . .

Cited by:

Wrongly decided – Director of Public Prosecutions v Gomez HL 3-Dec-1992
The defendant worked as a shop assistant. He had persuaded the manager to accept in payment for goods, two cheques which he knew to be stolen. The CA had decided that since the ownership of the goods was transferred on the sale, no appropriation of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214203

Metropolitan Police Commissioner v Curran; Regina v Curran: CACD 1975

The defendant was sat drunk in his car. He had his keys, but they were not in the ignition. He was breathalysed. He later refused to provide a specimen of his urine to be analysed. He was acquited of being drunk in charge, but convicted of failing to provide the specimen. He appealed saying the convictions were inconsistent.
Held: He was so drunk that he was in fact unlikely to drive.

Citations:

[1975] 2 All ER 1045

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal to – Metropolitan Police Commissioner v Curran; Regina v Curran HL 1976
The defendant had been found drunk at the wheel of his car. His keys were not in the ignition. He was convicted of being drunk in charge of the car, but appealed his conviction for failing to provide a specimen of urine. He appealed saying the . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Metropolitan Police Commissioner v Curran; Regina v Curran HL 1976
The defendant had been found drunk at the wheel of his car. His keys were not in the ignition. He was convicted of being drunk in charge of the car, but appealed his conviction for failing to provide a specimen of urine. He appealed saying the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.200602

Regina v Davies: CACD 2003

The defendant said that section 40 of the 1974 Act was not compatible with the presumption of innocence in Article 6(2) of the Convention, unless the section was read down to impose only an evidential burden on the defendant.
Held: The Act was regulatory and intended to protect health and safety of workers and other. In choosing to operate in a regulated sphere of activity, the defendant had accepted those controls and before any onus fell on him, under section 40, to prove that it was not reasonably practicable to do more, the prosecution had to prove that the defendant owed the relevant duty and the relevant safety standard had been breached. The facts relied on in support of the defence of reason practicability would be within the knowledge of the defendant, but, if there was merely an evidential burden on the defendant, the prosecution might face considerable difficulties, particularly in complicated, and potentially the most serious cases; that the consequences to the defendant of conviction did not involve the moral obloquy of a truly criminal offence and he would not face imprisonment. For those reasons, the imposition of a legal burden of proof in section 40 of the Act was justified, necessary and proportionate and was not incompatible with Article 6(2) of the Convention.

Citations:

[2003] ICR 586 (CA)

Statutes:

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 40, European Convention on Human Rights 6

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Transco Plc v Her Majesty’s Advocates HCJ 16-Sep-2004
A dwellinghouse had exploded, killing the occupants. The defendant was to be tried for alleged breaches of the 1974 Act in the gas supoplies to the house. The appellant complained that a jury trial would be an infringement of its rights, since a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Health and Safety, Human Rights

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214189

Regina v Skipp: CACD 1975

The defendant, presented himself as a contractor, and was instructed to collect and deliver consignments of goods from three different places. Having collected the goods he made off with them. He faced one count of theft in respect of the three consignments. He appealed his conviction.
Held: There had been no appropriation until the last of the goods were loaded, or probably until the defendant deviated from the route to the proper destination. There was therefore no duplicity in the allegation.

Citations:

[1975] Crim L R 114

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions v Gomez HL 3-Dec-1992
The defendant worked as a shop assistant. He had persuaded the manager to accept in payment for goods, two cheques which he knew to be stolen. The CA had decided that since the ownership of the goods was transferred on the sale, no appropriation of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214204

Oakey v Jackson: 1914

Citations:

[1914] 1 KB 216

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Doubted – Regina v Sheppard HL 1981
The section made it an offence for anyone having care of a child to wilfully neglect the child ‘in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health’.
Held: The section speaks of an act or omission that is ‘likely’ to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.213654

Regina v Gomez: CACD 1991

The defendant was an assistant shop manager. He accepted two cheques which he knew to be stolen from a customer in exchange for goods, by persuading the manager that the cheques were valid. He was accused of theft of the goods. He answered that a sale had been made, and the property transferred to the buyer, and that therefore there had been no appropriation of property belonging to another.
Held: The appeal succeeded. At the time of the actus reus, the ownership was transferred, and there was no property belonging to another.

Judges:

Lane LCJ, Hutchison J, Mantell J

Citations:

[1991] 1 WLR 1334, [1991] 3 All ER 394, Times 24-Apr-1991

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – Director of Public Prosecutions v Gomez HL 3-Dec-1992
The defendant worked as a shop assistant. He had persuaded the manager to accept in payment for goods, two cheques which he knew to be stolen. The CA had decided that since the ownership of the goods was transferred on the sale, no appropriation of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214196

Attorney-General’s Reference (No. 2 of 1982): CACD 1984

Two men were charged with theft from a company which they wholly owned and controlled. The court considered the actions of company directors in dishonestly appropriating the property of the company, and whether since the title to the goods was transferred, the goods had remained the property of the company.
Held: The actions of the directors were ultra vires. The principle that the dishonesty of the directors was not to be imputed to the company applied also in criminal law. The issue of dishonesty was for the jury. Where as here there was an effective identity between the dirtector appropriating the property and the company, whether the acts were ultra vires in the context of the company’s articles of association was not conclusive. The acts of the defendants could amount to stealing.
The decision in Belmont Finance ‘directly contradicts the basis of the defendants’ argument in the present case. There can be no reason, in our view, why the position in the criminal law should be any different’.

Judges:

Kerr LJ

Citations:

[1984] QB 624, [1984] 2 WLR 447, [1984] 2 All ER 216, (1983) 78 Cr App R 131, [1984] Crim LR 241, [1984] BCLC 60

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968 2(1)(a) 2(1)(b)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass HL 31-Mar-1971
Identification of Company’s Directing Mind
In a prosecution under the 1968 Act, the court discussed how to identify the directing mind and will of a company, and whether employees remained liable when proper instructions had been given to those in charge of a local store.
Held: ‘In the . .
Applied – Belmont Finance Corporation Ltd v Williams Furniture Ltd CA 1979
The company directors operated an elaborate scheme to extract value from Belmont by causing it to buy the shares of a company called Maximum at a considerable overvalue. This was a breach of the fiduciary duties of the directors. They sought to . .

Cited by:

Approved – Director of Public Prosecutions v Gomez HL 3-Dec-1992
The defendant worked as a shop assistant. He had persuaded the manager to accept in payment for goods, two cheques which he knew to be stolen. The CA had decided that since the ownership of the goods was transferred on the sale, no appropriation of . .
Cited – Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd and Others SC 12-Jun-2013
In the course of ancillary relief proceedings in a divorce, questions arose regarding company assets owned by the husband. The court was asked as to the power of the court to order the transfer of assets owned entirely in the company’s names. The . .
Cited – Jetivia Sa and Another v Bilta (UK) Ltd and Others SC 22-Apr-2015
The liquidators of Bilta had brought proceedings against former directors and the appellant alleging that they were party to an unlawful means conspiracy which had damaged the company by engaging in a carousel fraud with carbon credits. On the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime, Company

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214197

Regina v Desmond: CCA 1964

Citations:

[1964] 3 All ER 587, [1964] 3 WLR 1148

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – Regina v Desmond HL 1965
The House analysed the authorities on the law of larceny and robbery, and declared its current state. While in earlier times robbery may have been limited to where there was actual violence, it became sufficient that there was ‘a putting in fear of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214201

Regina v Morris (David): CACD 1983

Two defendants worked together to alter the labels on joints of meat in a supermarket, and to present the one with the now reduced price at the till. The appealed convictions for theft saying that since the purchase transferred the property in the meat to them, no appropriation had taken place within the section.
Held: The convictions were appropriate. There had been an assumption of the rights of the owner.

Citations:

[1983] 2 All ER 448, [1983] 2 WLR 768, [1983] QB 587

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Considered – Lawrence v Metropolitan Police Commissioner HL 30-Jun-1971
The defendant, a taxi driver, had without objection on the part of an Italian student asked for a fare of andpound;6 for a journey for which the correct lawful fare was 10s 6d. The taxi driver was convicted of theft. On appeal the main contention . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Regina v Morris (David); Anderton v Burnside HL 2-Jan-1983
The defendants had been accused of theft. One switched labels on a joint of pork in a supermarket, and the other presented the meat with the now cheaper label for purchase.
Held: The appeals were dismissed. There can be no conviction for theft . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.214200

Kaur v Chief Constable for Hampshire: CACD 1981

The court was concerned not to extend the Theft Act to include as thefts activities which many people would not consider to be such: ‘the court should not be astute to find that a theft has taken place where it would be straining the language so to hold, or where the ordinary person would not regard the defendant’s acts, though possibly morally reprehensible, as theft.’

Citations:

[1981] 1 WLR 578

Statutes:

Theft Act 1968 5

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Attorney-General’s Reference (No 1 of 1985) CACD 1986
An employee had made a secret profit by selling his own goods on his employer’s premises, thereby breaking the terms of his contract of employment.
Held: The moneys the employee received from his private customers were not received on account . .
Cited – Holmes v Governor of Brixton Prison and Another Admn 20-Aug-2004
The applicant sought his release from imprisonment where he awaited extradition to Germany. He was suspected of an offence of deception. He said there was insufficient evidence that the offence alleged would be an offence here. The alleged offence . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.200476