Court of Criminal Appeal
| Published date | 01 January 1948 |
| Date | 01 January 1948 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834801200104 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court of Criminal Appeal
THE
PRACTICE
OF
TAKING
OUTSTANDING
OFFENCES
INTO
CONSIDERATION
R. v. Nicholson
ANapplicant sought leave
to
appeal against a con-
viction of larceny on
the
ground
that that
offence
had
already been
taken
into
consideration on his conviction
of
another
offence of larceny
and
he argued
that
the
con-
viction should be quashed on
the
plea of autrefois convict.
On
the
first charge of larceny
the
offence
with
which he was
later
charged was included in
the
list of outstanding offences
which he
admitted
and
asked to be
taken
into
consideration.
It
was held
by
the
Court of Criminal Appeal (Lord Goddard
C.].,
Humphreys
and
Singleton
]].)
that
in fact
that
offence
was
not
taken
into
consideration.
In
areport which
the
chairman of
quarter
sessions
sent
to
the
Court he
pointed
out
that
it
was distinguishable from R. u, l"WcMinn (61
T.L.R.
285) in
that
there
the
outstanding offence
had
in
fact been
taken
into consideration, whereas in
the
present
case
the
justices
had
refused to do so.
The
Court said
that
it
was all to
the
good
that
their
attention
had
been drawn
to
R. v. McMinn, for
they
had
been
told
that
the
decision of Lewis J. in
that
case, which
was
heard
at
assizes,
had
led to some ditficulty.
Lewis].
held
that
aplea of autrefois convict should succeedwhen
the
offence
had
been
taken
into
consideration on a previous
occasion. As Singleton
].
pointed
out
in R. v. Nicholson,
it
was
not
easy to see how
that
decision could be considered
in
the
Court of Criminal Appeal if
it
were universally
followed in
the
courts of trial. Singleton J., speaking for
the
Court, said
that
they
were unable
to
agree
with
that
opinion of
Lewis].
They
recognised
that
the
question
had
not
been argued before them,
but
they
thought
it
right
to
point
out
that
the
taking
into consideration of cases
at
the
request of an accused person did
not
mean
that
there
had
been aconviction in each of such cases.
For
many
68
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