South Australian Current Acts

CRIMINAL LAW CONSOLIDATION ACT 1935 - SECT 131

131—Dishonesty

        (1)         A person's conduct is "dishonest" if the person acts dishonestly according to the standards of ordinary people and knows that he or she is so acting.

        (2)         The question whether a defendant's conduct was dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people is a question of fact to be decided according to the jury's own knowledge and experience and not on the basis of evidence of those standards.

        (3)         A defendant's willingness to pay for property involved in an alleged offence of dishonesty does not necessarily preclude a finding of dishonesty.

        (4)         A person does not act dishonestly if the person—

            (a)         finds property; and

            (b)         keeps or otherwise deals with it in the belief that the identity or whereabouts of the owner cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps; and

            (c)         is not under a legal or equitable obligation with which the retention of the property is inconsistent.

        (5)         The conduct of a person who acts in a particular way is not dishonest if the person honestly but mistakenly believes that he or she has a legal or equitable right to act in that way.

Example—

A takes an umbrella violently from B honestly but mistakenly believing that B has stolen A's umbrella and that A is entitled to use force to get it back. In fact, it belongs to B. A is charged with robbery. A cannot be properly convicted on this charge because of his honest but mistaken belief (however unreasonable). However, he may still be guilty of an assault.

        (6)         A person who asserts a legal or equitable right to property that he or she honestly believes to exist does not, by so doing, deal dishonestly with the property.

Example—

A takes an umbrella violently from B honestly believing that the umbrella belongs to A and that A is entitled to possession of the umbrella (but knowing that she is not entitled to use force to get it back). The assertion of that possessory right (whether or not correctly founded in law) is not dishonest (and therefore cannot amount to theft) although the means used to get the umbrella back may well amount to some other offence.