Odger's English Common Law

THE ASPORTATION. 355
that it was not her own, and intending at that moment to appropriate the
contents to her own use, the Court held that she was rightly convicted, as
she had no reasonable grounds for believing that the owner could not be
found. 1
Again, where a cabman abstracts the contents of a parcel which has been
accidentally left in his cab by a passenger whose address he could easily
ascertain, or where a tailor finds and applies to his own use a pocket-book
left in a coat sent to him by a customer to be repaired, he commits
larceny. So if a man, who had bought a desk at an auction, discovered
valuables in it and appropriated them to his own use, he would be guilty
of larceny, if he had no ground for supposing that he had bought the con-
tents, and had reason to think that the owner could be discovered. 2
VI.
Lastly, the prisoner must carry away the thing which he is
accused of stealing. This is technically called " asportation."
He must do something more than merely take possession of
it ; otherwise he will be guilty only of an attempt to commit
larceny. But the least removal will suffice, provided every
atom of the thing is removed an appreciable distance from
the place which it previously occupied.
'
It is not necessary
that the thief should make off with it. "Where, however, the
thing is so fastened or secured that it cannot be com-
pletely removed without breaking a cord or otherwise severing
the fastening, merely shifting its position without releasing it
will not amount to larceny. In order to render the asportation
in such cases complete, there must be a severance. The law
on this point is well and succinctly stated in the Larceny
Act, 1916: "The expression 'carries away' includes any
removal of anything from the place which it occupies, but in
the case of a thing attached only if it has been completely
detached." 3
Thus, if a man be apprehended in the act of leading another's horse out
of a field ; if a thief, intending to steal plate, takes it out of a chest in
which it was, and lays it down upon the floor, but is surprised before he
can make his escape with it ; or if gas or water be fraudulently abstracted
from the main against the will and without the knowledge of the company
who supply it—in any of these cases there is a sufficient asportation. 4
i B. v. West (1854), Dearsl. 402.
2 Cartwright v. Green (1802), 8 Ves. 405 ; and see Merry v. Green (1841), 7
M. & W. 623.
8 S. 1 (2) (ii.).
1 As to gas, see R. v. Firth (1869), L. B. 1 C. C. R. 172 ; as to water, see Ferens v.
O'Brien (1883), 11 Q. B. D. 21 ; as to electricity, see Larceny Act, 1916, s. 10.
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