Burglary, Theft, Fraud & Criminal Damage
Robbery and Blackmail Offences
Robbery
The Theft Act 1968 provides for the offence of theft and other connected offences. Section 8 provides for the offences of robbery and assault with intent to rob.
Offences
A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.
Points to Prove
- ✓ stole property
- ✓ immediately before/at the time of doing so
- ✓ and in order to do so
- ✓ used force on a person or put/sought to put person in fear of immediate force
Force
Means the ordinary meaning and whether force has been used is a matter for the court to decide. This is a question of fact for the jury.
Note
- ▸ The offence of theft must be proved before robbery can be substantiated.
- ▸ Force or the threat of force must be used immediately before or at the time of the theft. If, at the end of an assault, the offender then decides to take their victim’s watch, that is not a robbery, it is separate offences of assault and theft.
- ▸ The use of force, or threat of force, must be to enable a theft.
- ▸ If the offence is carried out by a number of offenders, but only one uses violence towards the victim, the others cannot be held responsible for the violence unless a prior agreement between them to use that degree of violence in order to achieve their objective is shown (joint unlawful enterprise).
- ▸ It is not necessary to prove that the victim was actually put in fear, it is sufficient to prove that the offender sought to put them in fear
Defences
If an honest belief that a legal claim of right to the property exists
Allocation and Penalty
Robbery
Crown Court only
Maximum – up to life imprisonment or an unlimited fine, or both
Assault with Intent to Rob
Where there is an assault with intent to rob there will often be an attempted robbery.
Assault with Intent to Rob
Crown Court only
Maximum – Up to life imprisonment or an unlimited fine, or both.
Blackmail
Section 21 of the Theft Act 1968 deals with the offence of blackmail.
Offences
A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces; and for this purpose, a demand with menaces is unwarranted unless the person making it does so in the belief—
(a) that he has reasonable grounds for making the demands; and
(b) that the use of the menaces is a proper means of reinforcing the demands.
Points to Prove
- ✓ with view to gain for self/another or intent to cause loss to another
- ✓ made unwarranted demand with menaces
Intent
The mens rea, which is Latin for ‘guilty mind’, must be proved.
This can be proved by looking at various sources of information:
- ▸ admissions made by the suspect in interview which reveal their state of mind at the time of the commission of the offence;
- ▸ answers given by the suspect to questions regarding their actions and intentions at the time of the offence;
- ▸ by inference from the circumstances of the offence;
- ▸ evidence from witnesses;
- ▸ actions of the suspect before, during, and after the event, and property found on them or in their control.
To prove intent, all the above to be taken into account.
The defendants state of mind at the time must be proved. A jury must consider the circumstances and decide by way of a subjective test whether the defendant would have intended or foreseen the results which occurred.
Menaces
This is not defined by the Theft Act 1968 but it is an ordinary English word which the jury can generally decide on as a question of fact. Exceptionally the jury may need some guidance where:
- ▸ the threat is one which deliberately exploited a victim’s unusual timidity or some phobia they had (R v Garwood (1987) Cr App R 85); or
- ▸ although the defendant intended that the victim should be put in fear, they are not in fact affected by the threat (R v Clear (1968) 52 Cr App R 58).
In both cases the jury should be directed that such threats are capable of amounting to menaces for the purposes of section 21 Theft Act 1968.
Demand
This is not defined in Theft Act 1968 but it is a word in ordinary use and should be left to the jury. It can be phrased as a request or even as an offer (such as an offer of “protection” to a business.)
It may be simply the defendant’s demeanour. If the effect is to subject the victim to menacing pressure then that element of the offence will be made out.
A demand need not be actually communicated to the victim in order to be “made” for the purposes of section 21 Theft Act 1968. The demand is made when it is addressed to the victim (whether in writing or spoken words) whether the victim receives it or not.
Unwarranted
A demand will be unwarranted unless the person making it believes both that they have reasonable grounds for making it and that the menaces used are a proper means of reinforcing it.
It is for the defence to raise this as an issue but once raised, the onus is on the prosecution to disprove it to the criminal standard. The test is subjective: what the defendant in fact believed, reasonably or not.
View to gain/intending to cause loss
Gain and loss are defined at section 34(2) Theft Act 1968 and are limited to gain or loss of money or other property. The gain or loss may be temporary and include gain by keeping what one already has and loss by not getting what one might otherwise get.
The offence of blackmail is committed when a person with a view to gain for themselves or another or intending to cause loss to another makes an unwarranted demand with menaces. Dishonesty is not an element of the offence.
Defences
In the belief that:
- ▸ they had reasonable grounds for making the demands; and
- ▸ the use of the menaces is a proper means of reinforcing the demands.
Punishment
Blackmail
Crown Court only
Maximum punishment – up to 14 years imprisonment
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