Criminal law - The Theft Act 1968

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Criminal Law

Semester 2

LW 107

Section 1 (1) of the Theft Act 1968 creates the legal definition of theft that is: 'A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it'. Each various area f this definition are explained in sections 2 to 6 of the act. In the case of R v Gomez [1993] AC 442 a number of areas was needed to be resolved upon deciding the case especially when dealing with appropriation. S 3 (1) gives the legal definition of appropriation as: 'any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner'. There are two problematic issues relating to the meaning of 'appropriation' which the court has tried to deal with in recent years. There are:

- If the defendant has to assume all of the rights of an owner or if one of he rights of the owner is sufficient.