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CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT (PROPERTY OFFENCES) ACT 2022 (NO 24 OF 2022) - SECT 9

Part VI, Division 5A inserted

After section 193

insert

Division 5A     Assault with intent to steal

193A     Interpretation

    (1)     In this Division:

"appropriates" means assumes the rights of the owner of the property and includes, if the person has come by the property without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner.

"depriving" means permanently depriving and appropriating or borrowing property without meaning the person to whom it belongs permanently to lose the property if the intention of the person appropriating or borrowing it is to treat the property as the person's own to dispose of (including to dispose of by lending or under a condition as to its return that the person may not be able to perform) regardless of the rights of the person to whom it belongs.

"steals" means unlawfully appropriates property of another with the intention of depriving that person of it whether or not at the time of the appropriation the person appropriating the property was willing to pay for it, but does not include the appropriation of property by a person with the reasonable belief that the property has been lost and the owner of the property cannot be discovered.

    (2)     A person cannot steal land or things forming part of the land and severed from it by the person or at the person's directions, except:

    (a)     if the person has legal authority to sell or dispose of land belonging to another person and the person appropriates the land or anything forming part of it – by dealing with it in breach of the confidence reposed in the person; or

    (b)     if the person is not in possession of the land and the person appropriates anything forming part of the land – by severing it or causing it to be severed, or after it has been severed; or

    (c)     if, being in possession of the land under a tenancy or holding over after a tenancy – the person appropriates the whole or part of any fixture or structure let to be used with the land.

    (3)     If property is subject to a trust, the persons to whom it belongs are to be regarded as including any person having a right to enforce the trust and an intention to defeat the trust is to be regarded as an intention to deprive any person having that right of the property.

    (4)     If a person ( person A ) receives property from or on account of another person ( person B ) and is under an obligation to person B to retain or deal with it or its proceeds in a particular way, the property or proceeds are to be regarded, as against person A, as belonging to person B until the obligation is discharged.

    (5)     If a person obtains property by another person's mistake and is under an obligation to make restoration, in whole or in part, of the property or its proceeds or its value, then, to the extent of that obligation, the property or proceeds are to be regarded, as against the person who has so obtained it, as belonging to the person entitled to restoration and an intention not to make restoration is to be regarded as an intention to deprive that person of the property or proceeds.

    (6)     Property of a corporation sole belongs to the corporation despite a vacancy in the corporation.

193B     Assault with intent to steal

    (1)     Any person who assaults another person with intent to steal anything is guilty of an offence and is liable to imprisonment for 7 years.

    (2)     If the offender is armed with a firearm or any other dangerous or offensive weapon or is in company with one or more person or persons or if the assault causes harm, the offender is liable to imprisonment for 14 years.

    (3)     If the offender is armed with a firearm and immediately before, at or immediately after the assault the offender injures any person by discharging it, the offender is liable to imprisonment for life.



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