CASE

Case

Case

J. Henry is should be accused for her action. Although it is a fact that she has taken a large sum of money just to release her son from the kidnappers. But crime is crime. She has committed a theft and should be treated accordingly. The only relaxation in this case can be given by the owner if and only if he forgive her.

The Theft Act 1968 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, governing most of the general property offences in English law. On 15 January 2007 the Fraud Act 2006 came into force, redefining most of the offences of deception. A number of greatly simplified - or at least less complicated - offences were created which all incorporate the element of dishonesty:

all the variety of larcenies and conversion in the Larceny Act 1916 were brought into a single offence as defined in s1 of theft;

aggravated forms of theft involving the threat or use of violence were consolidated under s8 into robbery;

burglary and all the different forms of housebreaking, shopbreaking, etc were captured under s9 as the single heading of burglary;

specific offences were created in s12 to cover the taking of bicycles and TWOC to cover the offence of joy-riding or sitting in the car while another drives it away without the owner's consent:

abstracting electricity - the "theft" of electricity which had been included in the Act 1916 was retained in s13;

for historically valid but now redundant reasons, a specific offence was created to protect art galleries, museums, etc;

The basic pattern of deception offences was established in the Act 1968, and then amended in the Theft Act 1978 and the Theft (Amendment) Act 1996 which addressed some of the problems that had arisen in the enforcement of the law (for the definition of deception, see criminal deception). There are now five offences, namely:

(a) obtaining property by deception under s15 Theft Act 1968;

(b) obtaining a money transfer by deception under ss15A and 15B Theft Act 1968 (see Act 1996);

(c) obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception under s16 Theft Act 1968;

(d) obtaining services by deception under s1 Theft Act 1978; and

(e) evasion of liability by deception under s2 Theft Act 1978;

It is also an offence to make off without paying. This does not require a deception.

Thus, in the light of above law, we can say that J. Henry should be punished as per the legal requirements under the UK Theft Act.

An offer must be a clear, unequivocal and direct approach to another party to contract. For this reason, advertisements, catalogues or store flyers are not offers. Nor is a FOR SALE sign on a used car. The law calls these invitations to treat; essentially invitations to the general public to make an offer on a particular item. But, even here, there have been exceptions. For example, in a 1856 case, an advertisement of train rates was held to be a valid offer. Much depends on the wording of the ...