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Law on Theft

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The property offence of theft is laid out in s.1 of the Theft Act 1968 which provides that a person is guilty of theft if they dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention to permanently deprive the other of it. S 2-6 of the Theft Act 1968 provide definitions of each of the elements of theft. S. 7 sets out the maximum penalty for theft of 7 years. There are many criticisms foe theft and they have been a few reforms on the law of theft, the theft act of 1968 does not provide any legal definition for the word ‘dishonest’. Due to the fact that there is no definition of dishonest within section 1 of the theft act which makes it quite confusing on how the law will be interpreted. This also means that the way it will be interpreted will be inconsistent. With different cases providing conflicting interpretation. An example of where the cases interpretation differs is from Ghosh 1982, feely (1973) and light foot (1993). The law is normally told to the jury members however for the word ‘dishonest’ the jury make their own definition. Many legal academics have said that the jury shouldn’t define the word dishonest but the word dishonest should be determined by Parliament. Another criticism for the theft act would be for the word ‘appropriates’ which is contained within section 1 (1) which has a too wide of a definition. Before the 1968 Act, the law required the physical taking of property for an appropriation to be considered. After the 1968 Act, this is no longer the situation. Section 3 (1) states “any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation”. The use of rights includes to take, sell, damage or destroy, use. Therefore a theft could occur even if a person wears or uses the property temporarily. The case of Hinks 2000 broadened the meaning of ‘appropriation’ even wider, so that it also includes where a person has been given gift by another person. However in the case of Gomez (1993) and Lawrence (1993) also advocated that an unlawful appropriation may occur even when the person has consent to appropriate by the owner. All three cases have made a logical meaning of the word ‘appropriation’

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