Making off without payment

Last updated

Making off without payment is a statutory offence in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Hong Kong. It was first introduced on the recommendation of the Criminal Law Revision Committee and is intended to protect legitimate business concerns and applies where goods are supplied or a service is performed on the basis that payment will be made there and then. A taxi passenger who runs off without paying the fare at the end of the journey; and a motorist who fills up with petrol at a garage and drives off when the attendant is distracted. [1] For these purposes, it must be proved that the defendant knew that payment on the spot was required or expected, and made off dishonestly with intent to avoid payment of the amount due.

Contents

Prior to the creation of the offence, running off might be a tort but it was not a crime; the supplier would have to bring a civil law suit against the recipient. The use of criminal law is intended to avoid this expense. To be a theft, the goods must belong to another when the appropriation occurs. A Sale of Goods Act (in the United Kingdom, the Consumer Rights Act 2015) determines when the ownership of goods passes. If the goods are being ascertained as part of the contract, title will pass when the goods are identified or measured. In a garage, it will occur when the fuel is measured as it passes through the pump into the car's tank. Similarly, if ownership passed before an intention to avoid payment was formed, no crime was committed. This became too common an event and so the law had to be clarified to enable convictions to be obtained despite civil law niceties.

England and Wales

In England and Wales, this offence is created by section 3 of the Theft Act 1978, which provides:

  • (1) Subject to subsection (3) below, a person who, knowing that payment on the spot for any goods supplied or service done is required or expected from him, dishonestly makes off without having paid as required or expected and with intent to avoid payment of the amount due shall be guilty of an offence.
  • (2) For purposes of this section 'payment on the spot' includes payment at the time of collecting goods on which work has been done, or in respect of which service has been provided.
  • (3) Subsection (1) above shall not apply where the supply of the goods or the doing of the service is contrary to law, or where the service done is such that payment is not legally enforceable.

In R v Allen [1985] AC 1029, the House of Lords said that, in order for the offence to be committed, there must be "an intention to permanently deprive" by making off, and that a mere "intention to defer" payment is not sufficient. In theory, a person could eat a meal at a restaurant, not pay, but leave his name and address in order for the restaurant to start civil recovery procedures against him; as long as the details were correct, and he did intend to pay at some point in the future (by way of civil recovery), then no offence under Section 3 would be committed. [2]

Northern Ireland

This offence is created by article 5 of the Theft (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 (S.I. 1978/1407 (N.I. 23)).

Article 5(4) was repealed on 1 March 2007 by articles 1(2) and 15(4) and 41(2) of, and paragraph 17 of Schedule 1 to, and Schedule 2 to, the Police and Criminal Evidence (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/288 (N.I. 2)).

Sentence

A person guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, [3] or, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding £1000, or to both. [4]

Republic of Ireland

This offence is created by section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001, [5] as recommended in 1992 by the Law Reform Commission. [6]

Hong Kong

The offence of "making off without payment" (不付款而離去) is created by section 18C of the Theft Ordinance (Cap. 210) [cf. 1978 c. 31 s. 3 U.K.].

Sentence

A person guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for 3 years.

See also

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theft</span> Act of taking anothers property without consent

Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word theft is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as larceny, robbery, embezzlement, extortion, blackmail, or receiving stolen property. In some jurisdictions, theft is considered to be synonymous with larceny, while in others, theft is defined more narrowly. A person who engages in theft is known as a thief.

Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear; that is, it is a larceny or theft accomplished by an assault. Precise definitions of the offence may vary between jurisdictions. Robbery is differentiated from other forms of theft by its inherently violent nature ; whereas many lesser forms of theft are punished as misdemeanors, robbery is always a felony in jurisdictions that distinguish between the two. Under English law, most forms of theft are triable either way, whereas robbery is triable only on indictment. The word "rob" came via French from Late Latin words of Germanic origin, from Common Germanic raub "theft".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forgery</span> Process of making, adapting, or imitating objects to deceive

Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidden by law in some jurisdictions but such an offense is not related to forgery unless the tampered legal instrument was actually used in the course of the crime to defraud another person or entity. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations.

Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law, where in many cases it remains in force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theft Act 1968</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Theft Act 1968 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of offences against property in England and Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theft Act 1978</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Theft Act 1978 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It supplemented the earlier deception offences contained in sections 15 and 16 of the Theft Act 1968 by reforming some aspects of those offences and adding new provisions. See also the Fraud Act 2006.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, taking without owner's consent (TWOC), also referred to as unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle (UTMV), describes any unauthorised use of a car or other conveyance that does not constitute theft. A similar offence, known as taking and driving away, exists in Scotland.

"Deception" was a legal term of art used in the definition of statutory offences in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It is a legal term of art in the Republic of Ireland.

False accounting is a legal term for a type of fraud, considered a statutory offence in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malicious Damage Act 1861</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Malicious Damage Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to malicious damage from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation Act, the Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827, incorporating subsequent statutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Possession of stolen goods</span> Category of crime

Possession of stolen goods is a crime in which an individual has bought, been given, or acquired stolen goods.

Conspiracy to defraud is an offence under the common law of England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fraud Act 2006</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Fraud Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which affects England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was given royal assent on 8 November 2006, and came into effect on 15 January 2007.

Obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception was formerly a statutory offence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It was replaced with the more general offence of fraud by the Fraud Act 2006. The offence still subsists in certain other common law jurisdictions which have copied the English criminal model.

Obtaining property by deception was formerly a statutory offence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

Prostitution in Northern Ireland is governed by the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act 2015, which makes it illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland. Prior to the act coming into effect, prostitution in Northern Ireland was regulated by the same or similar laws to those in England and Wales, as it is elsewhere in the United Kingdom. At that time, prostitution in Northern Ireland was legal subject to a number of restraints which controlled certain activities associated with prostitution, such as soliciting, procuring, living on the proceeds of prostitution (pimping), exploitation of prostitutes, under-age prostitution, and keeping a brothel. However, devolution provided the opportunity for separate legislation in Northern Ireland.

Abstracting electricity is a statutory offence of dishonestly using, wasting, or diverting electricity, covered by different legislation in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The law applies, for instance, in cases of bypassing an electricity meter, reconnecting a disconnected meter, or unlawfully obtaining a free telephone call. In Low v Blease [1975] Crim LR 513 it was held that electricity could not be stolen as it is not property within the meaning of section 4 of the Theft Act 1968. In one reported case in 2015 a man was arrested for abstracting electricity by charging his mobile telephone on a train, but was ultimately not charged. Before the Computer Misuse Act 1990 those who misused computers ("hackers") were charged with abstracting electricity, as no other law applied.

Removing article from place open to the public is a statutory offence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

Evasion of liability by deception was formerly a statutory offence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

Obtaining services by deception is a statutory offence in the Republic of Ireland. It has been abolished in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

References

  1. ↑ CLRC 1977, para. 20
  2. ↑ "R v Allen[1985]". e-lawresources. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  3. ↑ The Theft (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 (S.I. 1978/1407 (N.I. 23)), article 6(2)(b)
  4. ↑ The Theft (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 (S.I. 1978/1407 (N.I. 23)), article 6(3)
  5. ↑ "Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001, Section 8". Irish Statute Book . Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Bill, 2000: Second Stage". Dáil Éireann Debates. 30 November 2000. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.