Tajinder Singh Ranshi
A2 Law – Making Off Without Payment
Discuss the criminal liability of Armani?
Armani may have committed the offence of making off without payment.
This offence is set out in Section 3 of the Theft Act 1978. The actus reus for the offence is the defendant must have made off, there must be goods which have been supplied or a service has been done, payment is required on the spot and the defendant has not paid as required. The mens rea is that they must have acted dishonest, they had knowledge that payment was required on the spot and there was intention to avoid payment.
The first stage of the actus reus is making off. This means that the defendant leaves a place where payment is required. This was highlighted in the case of McDavitt where in the lp we were told that the defendant had not made off as he had not left the restaurant. If we apply this back to the scenario it is clear that the d had made off without paying as the d jumps out of the taxi and runs away before paying for it.