10. Property offences

This chapter discusses property offences. These include theft, taking a conveyance without consent, robbery, blackmail, burglary, handling stolen goods, and criminal damage. Amongst these, the offence receiving the most detailed treatment is theft. The current definition of theft dates back to 1968, long before the time when it became possible to hold and transfer money and other items (such as photographs) electronically, and the courts have sought to interpret the law in such a way that in can meet this challenge. But, in seeking to modernize the law’s approach to new forms of property holding and transfer, has the definition become too wide?