R v Campbell
A man arrested outside a post office with an imitation gun had not yet gone beyond mere preparation for robbery, because he had not entered the building.
Facts
Police received information that a post office was going to be robbed. They watched Mr Campbell, who was riding a motorcycle near the post office, wearing sunglasses and carrying an imitation gun. He walked towards the post office, stopped about a yard from the door, and was then arrested. He admitted that he had intended to rob the post office but said that he had changed his mind. He was convicted of attempted robbery.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction. Watkins LJ said that a number of acts remained undone before Mr Campbell could have been said to have attempted to rob the post office. He had not entered the post office, gone to the counter or produced the imitation gun, and the jury should not have been allowed to consider the charge, because there was no evidence of an act that was more than merely preparatory.
Related cases on inchoate offences and accessorial liability
- Attorney General's Reference (No 1 of 1975) [1975] QB 773
- Attorney General's Reference (No 1 of 1992) [1993] 1 WLR 274
- DPP for Northern Ireland v Maxwell [1978] 1 WLR 1350
- Haughton v Smith [1975] AC 476
- National Coal Board v Gamble [1959] 1 QB 11
- R v Anderson [1986] AC 27
- R v Bainbridge [1960] 1 QB 129
- R v Becerra and Cooper (1975) 62 Cr App R 212
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