The defendant had collected golf balls lost on a golf course while trespassing. He appealed his conviction of theft by finding.
Held: The appeal failed: ‘There can be no animus domini unless the thing is known of; but an intent to exclude others from it may be contained in a larger intent to exclude others from the place where it is, without any knowledge of the object’s existence.’ and ‘In a criminal case, the property in iron taken from the bottom of a canal by a stranger was held well laid in the canal company, although it does not appear that the company knew of it, or had any lien upon it. The only intent concerning the thing discoverable in such instances is the general intent which the occupant of land has to exclude the public from the land, and thus, as a consequence, to exclude them from what is upon it.’
Lord Goddard Humphreys, Portman Jj
[1948] 2 KBD 147, [1948] NZPoliceLawRp 6, (1948) 8 New Zealand Police Law Reports 20, [1948] 1 All ER 860, (1948) 46 LGR 238, (1948) 112 JP 287
NZLII
Larceny Act 1916 1(2)(i)(d)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Woodman CACD 26-Apr-1974
The defendant appealed his conviction of theft of materials from an abandoned industrial site.
Held: The appeal failed. ‘ there was evidence of English China Clays being in control of the site and prima facie in control of articles upon the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.670759