R v Lloyd
Borrowing property is an intention to permanently deprive only if the property is returned with all its goodness or virtue gone.
Facts
Mr Lloyd was the chief projectionist at a cinema. He lent films that were due to be shown at the cinema to friends, who made pirate copies of them and then returned the films, usually within a few hours. The films were shown at the cinema as planned. Mr Lloyd and his friends were convicted of conspiracy to steal.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions. Under section 6 of the Theft Act 1968, a borrowing can amount to an intention to permanently deprive only if it is for a period and in circumstances making it equivalent to an outright taking. Lord Lane CJ said that this means the defendant intends to return the thing in such a changed state that it can truly be said that all its goodness or virtue has gone. The films had been returned undamaged and could still be shown, so their value had not been exhausted, even though the commercial value to the owners had been reduced by the piracy.
Related cases on theft, robbery, burglary and fraud
- Attorney General's Reference (No 1 of 1983) [1985] QB 182
- Corcoran v Anderton (1980) 71 Cr App R 104
- Ivey v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd [2017] UKSC 67, [2018] AC 391
- Lawrence v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [1972] AC 626
- Oxford v Moss (1979) 68 Cr App R 183
- R v Barton and Booth [2020] EWCA Crim 575, [2021] QB 685
- R v Collins [1973] QB 100
- R v Ghosh [1982] QB 1053
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