On theft, abandonment, mens rea and intention-to-permanently-deprive.

[megadog]

Some interesting case-law Here

Just because something has been put in a skip/dumpster/bin, it's not 'abandoned' by the original owner, therefore it's not open to anyone else to come and take it.

Pikey-types and scavengers be aware!

Comments

[lunariia]

Hmm but then this one:

"The defendant was charged with theft of a car. He claimed that he thought that it had been abandoned by the owner because it had been left for over a week with the keys in it. The Court of Appeal ruled that he could not be guilty of theft if he had an honest belief to that effect, as if the car had been abandoned, the owner would not be 'deprived' of it."

Would seem to suggest that if you honestly believe something has been abandoned then it's not depriving someone of something. Interesting area of law.

[megadog]

Vehicle-theft is an interesting non-general case: the specifics being that [unlike, let's say, an umbrella] if you take a vehicle and use it and then abandon it, because it is still identifiably linkable with its rightful owner (by way of registration-plates, chassis/VIN-codes etc) there's a good chance the rightful owner will end up re-united with said vehicle.

In the 1980s 'joy-riding' was a big issue in the pikier parts of the country: the takers of vehicles couldn't be charged with theft but there's a specific offence related to vehicles of "Taking without owner's Consent" - a.k.a. TWOCing - which they _can_ be charged with.

[bearwithin]

Interesting... especially the one about scavenging from a bin! It does sound line a "busybody" case though - I can't imagine why someone would have complained about rubbish collectors "stealing" their rubbish, unless they were just the kind of people who think that "recycling" of such junk is generally low-class and distasteful.

We have a regular junk collection here where you can throw out old furniture and the like, and it used to be great fun to drive around and collect useful odds and ends that others didn't want. I thought the scavenging was good as it reduced the waste going in to the landfill - but various "busybodies" complained and the council added a special anti-scavenging bylaw.

[megadog]

The issue is that there is still value in the stuff-put-in-the-bin and that the people contracted to remove/recycle it are suffering a direct financial loss if someone unauthorisedly intercepts it between the original owner putting it in the bin and the recycling-operators collecting it.

Unauthorised scavengers removing the more-valuable stuff from the garbage means the authorised contractor is left with the low-value stuff to deal with - they'll therefore increase their charges to the city/county for providing said service - meaning higher property-taxes. As such I don't want anyone stealing my recycling!