House of Lords
| Date | 01 August 1984 |
| Published date | 01 August 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838404800304 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
HOUSE
OF
LORDS
STATUTORY
AND
COMMON
LAW
CONSPIRACY-MUTUALLY
EXCLUSIVE
R. v. Ayres
In R. v. Ayres [1984] 2
W.L.R.
257; 48
J.CL.
152, the House of
Lords has finally resolved the conflict of judicial opinion as to where
the line of demarcation is to be drawn between common law
conspiracy to defraud and statutory conspiracy under section 1 of
the Criminal Law Act 1977 which (as amended by section 5(1) of
the Criminal Attempts Act 1981) provides that: "
...
if a person
agrees with any
other
person or persons that a course of conduct
shall be pursued which, if the agreementiscarriedout in accordance
with their intentions, either(a) will necessarily amount to or involve
the commission of any offence or offences by one or more
of
the
parties to the agreement, or (b) would do so but for the existence of
facts which render the commission of the offence or any of the
offences impossible, he is guilty of conspiracy to commit the offence
or offences in question." Section 5(1) of the 1977 Act provides that:
"Subject to the following provisions of this section, the offence of
conspiracy at common law is hereby abolished." Section 5(2) states
that: "Subsection (1) above shall not affect the offence of conspi-
racy at common law so far as relates to conspiracy to defraud, and
section 1 above shall not apply in any case where the agreement in
question amounts to a conspiracy to defraud at common law."
It
was alleged that the defendant had planned to obtain money
from an insurance company by means of a false representation that
a lorry load of scallops had been stolen while in transit.
If
completed, the fraud would have constituted an obtaining of
property by deception contrary to section 15(1) of the Theft Act
1968. The defendant was indicted for and convicted of conspiracy
to defraud at common law. He appealed against conviction to the
Court of Appeal, contending that the indictment was defective in
that it should have been laid as a conspiracy to obtain property by
271
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