Associated Offences Flashcards
Outline the test for proximity?
Has the offender done anything more than getting himself into a position from which he could embark on an actual attempt?
Has the offender actually commenced execution; That is to say, has he taken a step in the actual crime itself?
When is an act physically or factually impossible?
Provide examples from case law?
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An Act is physically or factually impossible if it is an offence but the suspect is unable to commit it due to ineptitude, insufficient means, interruption or any other circumstances beyond his control.
Provide an example of a legally impossible act (attempt).
Explain this using case law.
R v Donnelly
Where property stolen has been returned to the owner or legal title to any such property has been acquired by any person; it is not an offence to subsequently receive it, even though the receiver may know the property has previously been stolen or dishonestly obtained.
Define Parties, S. 66 CA 1961?
ADCA
66(1) Everyone is a party to an offence who;
Actually, commits the offence; or
Does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence.
Abets any person in the commission of the offence.
Incites, Counsels or procures any person to commit the offence.
A Victim has been significantly beaten and as a result died by a group of offenders (3). Police believe they are each involved but it is not known who actually threw the blow that caused the death. Identify and describe the case law the Court may refer to when deciding on liability.
R v Renata
The court held that where the principal offender cannot be identified, it is sufficient to prove that each individual accused must have been either the principal or a party in one of the ways contemplated in S. 66(1).
- Each offender satisfies the ingredients of the offence committed.
- Each offender satisfies the actus reus.
What are Secondary offenders?
Secondary offenders are those who assist in the principal offenders either before or during the commission of an offence are considered secondary offenders and thus their liability generally lies within the scope of S. 66(1)(b)(c) or (d)
Police V Larkins?
Whilst it is unnecessary that the principal should be aware that he or she is being assisted, there must be proof of actual assistance. The mere commission of an act intended to have that effect is insufficient.
Provide two examples of assistance.
KPT
- Keeping lookout for someone committing a burglary
- Providing a screwdriver to someone interfering with a motor vehicle.
- Telling an associate when a neighbor is away from their home so as to allow the opportunity to commit a burglary.
What is a probable consequence?
Whether an outcome is ‘known to be a probable consequence is a subjective appreciation onpart of the offender (person A) where they must actually foresee the likelihood that their co-offender (person B) will commit another offence (Offence B) when committing the original offence agreed upon by both parties).
Define Aids
Assist with the commission of the offence, either physically or by giving advice and information.
Define Abets
Instigate or encourage: that is, to urge another person to commit the offence.
Define Incites
Rouse, stir up, stimulate, animate, urge or spur on a person to commit the offence.
Define Counsels
Intentionally instigate the offence by advising a person(s) on how best to commit an offence, or planning the commission of an offence for another person(s).
Define Procures
Setting out to see that something happens and taking the appropriate steps to ensure that it does.
Two offenders Bob and Rex make a plan to rob a bank. The plan is that Bob will distract the man in order to grab his bag, whilst Rex waits in the getaway car. As it turns out, Bob actually, has to push the man to grab the bag, and it causes the man to fall over, knock his head and die. Describe both men’s liability and explain the case law behind it.
An offence where no violence is contemplated and the principal offender in carrying out the common aim uses violence, a secondary offender taking no physical part in it would not be held liable for the violence used.
What is an innocent agent?
Provide 1 example.
An innocent agent is someone that is unaware of the significance of their actions and cannot be convicted as a secondary party. For example: A waiter who delivers a glass of wine to a customer, not knowing there is poison in the glass. A cleaner who is hired to clean a hotel room by a rapist, not knowing that they are destroying the evidence. A moving company that is hired to move furniture, that is in fact not the customers at all and is someone else’s property (burglary).
You are investigating a series of burglaries that have occurred in Pukekohe.
How might the involvement of parties to the burglaries be established?
SOORI W
- Reconstruction of the scene
- Offender admissions
- Suspect or witness admitting to providing aid or assistance when interviewed.
- Witness providing information others were involved in the offence based on observations
- Information received indicating others were involved in the offence
- Other factors such as CCTV results, scene of crime officers locating forensics etc.
What are the ingredients of accessory after the fact? What needs to be proven?
- Knowing any person to have been a party to any offence
- Comforts, Assists, Receives, or tampers with any Evidence or actively Suppresses evidence of the offence.
- In order to enable him to escape after arrest OR avoid arrest or conviction.
What must be proven;
- That the person (person A) who is Comforted, Assisted or Received by the accessory
(Person B) is a party to an offence that HAS been committed.
- That person B knows that person A is a party to the offence.
- That person B either comforted, Assisted, received person B or tampered with or
actively suppressed evidence against person A.
- That at the time of the comforting, assisting or receiving, Person B’s purpose was to
enable person A to escape after arrest OR to avoid arrest OR detention.
What knowledge must exist at the time assistance is given in order for it to be considered ‘An accessory after the fact”.
The accessory must;
- Know that an offence HAS been committed AND
- The person they are assisting was a party to that offence.
Discuss wilful blindness in relation to knowledge and apply relevant case law.
R v Briggs; As with a receiving charge knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making enquiries that would confirm the suspected truth.
*A person is considered wilfully blind where they deliberately shut their eyes and fails to inquire, because they know what the answer would be.
*They are in a situation where the means of knowledge are easily at hand and the person realizes the likely truth but
refrains from inquiring in order not to know.
Outline the three intents of Accessory after the fact
To enable the offender to;
- Escape after arrest
- Avoid arrest
- Avoid conviction.
Outline 5 intentional acts of Accessory after the fact?
Comforts, Assist, Receive, Tampers with evidence or actively suppress evidence.
In relation to the offence of perjury, what intent is required?
Intent to mislead - The offence of perjury is complete at the time the false evidence is given accompanied by an intention to mislead the tribunal. There must be an intention to mislead the tribunal, where the intention is absent, no offence has been committed.
Outline the elements of the offence ‘fabricating evidence’ under S. 113 of the Crimes Act.
- With intent to mislead any tribunal holding any judicial proceeding to which S. 108 applies
- Fabricates evidence by any means other than perjury.
What is a witness?
A witness is a person who gives evidence and is able to be cross-examined in a proceeding. This includes a person who is actively engaged in the process of giving evidence and/or who has previously given evidence. The term witness also includes a person who will give evidence.
List 4 examples of misleading justice.
CAPTAIN
CAPTAIS
Wilfully going absent as a witness.
- Arranging a false alibi.
- Threatening or bribing witnesses.
- Concealing the fact an offence has been committed.
- Assisting a wanted person to leave the country,
- Threatening or bribing Jury members.
- Preventing a witness from testifying.
- Intentionally giving Police false information to obstruct their enquiries.
- Supplying false information to Probation Officers.
What three elements are required for the act of receiving?
SRKR
- Must be property which has been stolen or obtained by a crime.
- The accused must have received that property (requires the receiving must be from
another person) - The accused must receive that property in the knowledge that it has been stolen or
- illegally obtained, or being reckless as to that possibility.
When is the act of Receiving complete?
The act of Receiving any property stolen or obtained by any other imprisonable offence is complete as soon as the offender has, either exclusively or jointly with the thief or any other person, possession of, or control over, the property or helps in concealing or disposing of the
property.
R v Kennedy “The guilty knowledge that the thing has been stolen or dishonestly obtained must exist at the time of receiving”.
Provide 4 examples of circumstantial evidence of guilty knowledge.
SCAMRRRS
- Possession of recently stolen property.
- Nature of property, ie type, value, quantity.
- Purchase at a gross undervalue.
- Secrecy in receiving the property.
- Receipt of goods at an unusual place.
- Receipt of goods at an unusual time.
- Receipt of goods in an unusual way.
- Concealment of property to avoid discovery.
- Removal of identifying marks or features.
- Steps taken to disguise property (ie removal/altering of serial numbers)
- Lack of original packaging.
- Type of person goods received from
- Mode of payment
- Absence of receipt where receipt would usually be issued.
For example Michael Murphy agrees to purchase a van off a friend he knows is a prolific car theft.
- The man tells Michael not to tell anyone about the deal or tell anyone who he got
the van from. - Agree on a price of $300.00 for a van that is usually worth $5,000.
- Agrees to meet the man in Pukekohe North at 2 am on a Tuesday.
- The van has a smashed ignition, other than that it is in good condition.
- Michael checks the registration plate, but it does not match to the van. His friend
tells him he recently purchased a new plate. - The VIN number is scratched off completely.
- The friend insists on cash as the mode of payment and advised him he does not
have a bank account. No receipt is issued.
