Chief Justice Bovill said, referring to the 1861 Act: ‘At the time that Act (24 and 25 Vict. c. 96) was passed theft by a partner of the goods of the firm did not fall within the criminal law, either common or statute. This defect was supplied by 31 and 32 Vict. c. 116, which, after reciting that ‘ it is expedient to provide for the better security of the property of co-partnerships and other joint beneficial owners against offences by part owners thereof, and further to amend the law as to embezzlement,’ proceeds to enact, by the first section, that if a partner, or one of two or more beneficial owners, shall steal, etc., any property of such co-partnership or such joint beneficial owners, ‘every such person shall be liable to be dealt with, tried, convicted, and punished for the same as if such person had not been or was not a member of such co-partnership, or one of such beneficial owners’.’
Judges:
Bovill CJ
Citations:
(1871 Crown Cases Reserved 266)
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Bonner and Others CACD 24-Feb-1970
The appellants challenged their convictions for theft, saying that as partners in a firm they could not be convicted of theft of partnership property.
Held: The appeals were allowed for the unsatisfactory and unsafe nature of the convictions . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Company, Crime
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.566425