Summary And Critique Of The 1969 Theft Act (NI)

The 1969 Theft Act (NI) is a piece of legislation issued by the Northern Ireland government, it is similar to the 1968 Theft Act granted for Great Britain but contains some provisions for Northern Ireland. The relevant part, in section 1 states “a person commits theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it”. The purpose of this essay is to provide an explanation and critique of this part of the 1969 Theft Act (NI). This will be done through using illustrative cases relating to the law, including the moral question of whether freegans commit theft; and if so, should there be legislative reform.

Although the concept of dishonesty has a major role in determining what is or is not theft, Reed and Fitzpatrick (2006) state that it is “particularly difficult to define”. Because of this, there has been an establishment of the ‘Ghosh Test’ that allows for both a subjective and an objective assessment of the defendant’s state of mind (Thomas, 2010). Following the decision in the 1982 R v Ghosh case, the jury should if necessary be held to apply a specific two-part test. First, was what the defendant did dishonest by the ordinary standards of reasonable honest people; and, if so, did the defendant know that what he did was dishonest
They were charged for ‘being on enclosed premises for an unlawful purpose’; the premises being Iceland and the unlawful purpose being theft. Although the case was originally regarded by the Crown Prosecution Service as significantly affecting public interest, it was later dismissed for not being in the public interest to prosecute (the guardian). So ultimately if the general public accept the act of ‘freeganism’ by not wishing prosecution upon these individuals for theft, then why must it be part of our law (De Silva, J.