Theft

Abstract

Theft is the central offence against property and its definition occupies the first six sections of the Theft Act 1968. It is subject to a maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment. The offences against property, unlike offences against the person, are largely in statutory form, the major statutes being the Theft Act 1968, amended and supplemented by the Theft Act 1978, and the Criminal Damage Act 1971. These statutes replaced a great deal of earlier legislation and the common law, which had grown very complex. They were an attempt to get rid of the fine distinctions and legalisms which bedevilled the common law; to draft legislation and define criminal offences in clear uncomplicated language which would be accessible to the non-expert. However, the caselaw since 1968 has demonstrated the difficulty of achieving this in the case of offences against property: the notion of ‘property’ itself being essentially legal and unavoidably complex.