Criminal Damage Flashcards
What is Criminal Damage and What section is it contained in?
Criminal Damage is contained in S.1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971. A person is guilty of the offence if they damage property which belongs to another person, and they do so intentionally or recklessely
What type of offence is criminal damage
An either way offence, but if the value of the damage is less than £5000 the case can only be tried at the magistrates per S22 Magistrates Court Act 1980.
If the court is unable to quantify the damage the defendant must be offered a trial on indictment.
What Constitutes damages?
For the Purpose of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 it is a question of fact.
The court have given a very wide definition to the concept of damage saying it is not restricted to permanent or irreparable damage.
Damage which can be cleaned up or easily repaired is still damage. The soaking of a blanket and the flooding of the floor of a police cell was held to amount to damage in Fiak 2005
What are the Requirements of Damage
It is not a Requirement that the damage to an item is tangible. The unauthorised deletion of a programme from a computer or the jamming of an email system by overloading it with spam damages are both capable of amounting to damage (Cox V Riley 1986).
What factors must be present to be guilty of criminal damage
- The property must belong to another person, it is not possible to be guilty of criminal damage to property wholly owned by yourself.
- It is possible to cause criminal damage to property jointly owned with another person or if that person has a proprietary interest in it or a charge on it.
How is Property defined in s10 this act different to the one outlined in the Theft Act.
Because it is possible to cause damage to land, whilst it is not possible to steal land.
The Mens Rea of Criminal Damage
The defendant must act recklessly or intentionally. I.e was the defendant himself aware of the risk yet carried on regardless?
It is not enough that an ordinary person would have been aware of the risk, the defendant himself must have been aware of it.
What are the defences for criminal damage
Defences are contained in S5 Criminal Damage Act 1971
Lawful excuse, causing damage to protect life and limb or to protect other property will amount to a defence, as will defences such as duress.
The defendant will not be guilty if he believed that the owner of the property would have consented to the damage. It does not matter whether the defendants belief was reasonable or not as long as it was honestly held.
Even if this belief was brought about due to the defendant being drunk, it will still be a defence.
What determines whether the offence is tried in the Crown Court or the Magistrates.
If the value of the damage is under £5,000 then the offence can only be tried at the Magistrates Court. If the value of the offence is above £5,000 then it can be tried at either the Magistrates or Crown Court.
Sentencing for Criminal Damage?
If the value of the damage is in excess of £5,000 then the maximum sentence is 10 years imprisonment or a fine.
If the value of the damage is less than £5,000 then the maximum sentence is 3 months imprisonment.
