Key point
- The common law tests for actus reus of attempt preceding the 1981 Act have no application
Facts
- D climbed onto a greyhound racetrack in an attempt to stop a race
- The dog on which he had placed a £18 bet was losing and he had hoped to recover his stake by stopping the race, the stewards decided not to stop the race
- D was charged with attempting to steal the £18 from the bookmaker under s1(1) and s1(4) Criminal Attempts Act
Held (Court of Appeal)
- Appeal allowed – D had not committed acts which were more than merely preparatory to the offence of theft
Lord Lane CJ
- The test is whether ‘D had gone beyond the realm of mere preparation and had embarked upon the actual commission of the offence’
- It is not necessary to apply the two conflicting lines of case law that precedes the 1981 Act, under which D must have reached a ‘point of no return’ in respect of the full offence, or must have done an act ‘forming part of a series of acts’ which constitute the crime
- The 1981 Act provides a midway course between both different lines of authority: it does not require that D reach a point beyond retreat and ‘more than merely preparatory’ defines where the ‘series of acts’ begins