Quarter Sessions
| Published date | 01 July 1957 |
| Date | 01 July 1957 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835702100302 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Quarter Sessions
LARCENY AS BAILEE: PROPERTY SUBJECT TO HIRE-PURCHASE
AGREEMENT
R. v.
Foster
THIS case raised
the
question of the liability of a hirer under
ahire-purchase agreement who had disposed of
the
property which was
the
subject of the agreement in such
circumstances as not to amount to a purported transfer of
ownership of the property to be convicted of larceny as a
bailee.
The
proviso to s. 1(1) of
the
Larceny Act 1916 enacts:
"A
person may be guilty of stealing [anything capable of being
stolen] notwithstanding
that
he has lawful possession thereof,
if, being a bailee
...
thereof, he fraudulently converts the same
to his own use or
the
use of any person other
than
the
owner".
The
defendant was indicted at Lincolnshire (Parts of
Lindsey) Quarter Sessions on two counts, each of which
charged him with larceny as a bailee of the same motor-cycle.
The
first count charged an offence alleged to have been
committed between 31st October and rst December 1956 and
the
second with an offence alleged to have been committed
on zoth December 1956.
The
undisputed facts were
that
the
defendant had hired
the
motor-cycle under ahire-purchase agreement and, having
paid part only of the instalments, was not in a position to
exercise the option to purchase which, by the agreement,
could be exercised only when all the instalments had been
paid by a further payment of
lOS.
and
that
the
motor-cycle
was at all material times the property of the hire-purchase
finance company.
The
first count related to a transaction with one
K,
to
whom
the
defendant had handed
the
motor-cycle in November
1956 and by whom it had subsequently been handed back to
the
defendant. Here there was a conflict of evidence whether
there had been, as Ksaid, an out-and-out sale to him, the price
to be paid by weekly instalments, or, as
the
defendant said,
219
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