Crime CCXVII-Theft XXV

In DPP v Gomez (1993) the defendant colluded with two others who had stolen a couple of cheques to purchase goods in the shop that he worked in. The defendant persuaded the manager of the shop to accept the cheques as payment for the goods the other two had purchased.

The cheques were dishonored and the defendant was charged. The defendant argued that the manager had consented to accepting the cheques as payment. The defendant appealed under section 3 (2) of the Theft Act 1968 which reads as follows: -

“Where property or a right or interest in property is or purports to be transferred for value to a person acting in good faith, no later assumption by him of rights which he believed himself to be acquiring shall, by reason of any defect in the transferor’s title, amount to theft of the property”

The House of Lords upheld the conviction and decided that appropriation could occur even when there is consent especially when there is a clear intention to defraud the rightful or legal owner.

Furthermore, as per section 3 (2) of the Theft Act 1968 for there to be a legal transfer of title both parties need to be acting in good faith and in this instance neither the defendant nor those he was colluding with were acting in good faith.

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