Odger's English Common Law

RECEIVING STOLEN GOODS. 381
(3) Every such person may be indicted and convicted,
whether the principal offender has or has not been previously
convicted, or is or is not amenable to justice."
Where the principal crime amounts to a felony, whether the person who
committed it has or has not been tried or convicted, any person accused of
receiving the goods may be tried :
(i.) as an accessory after the fact to the principal crime ; or
(ii.) as committing a distinct felony, viz., receiving.
—
It is usual now to insert in every indictment for larceny a second count
for x receiving the property knowing it to have been stolen ; and the jury
can find the prisoner guilty of either crime. Where the thief and the
receiver are jointly charged on such an indictment, they can find one
guilty of larceny and the other of receiving. Where stolen property has
passed through many hands, any number of persons who have at different
times knowingly received such property or any part thereof may.be charged
and tried together. 2 But the judge may always order a separate trial of
any count or counts, if he thinks that any of the accused would be prejudiced
or embarrassed by all the counts being tried together. 3
In order to convict a prisoner of " receiving stolen goods,
knowing them to have been stolen," the prosecution must
prove :
sion ;
—
(i.) that the goods were stolen ;
(ii.) that the prisoner received the goods into his posses-
and"
(iii.) that the prisoner knew at the time he so received them
that they were stolen.
We take here the case of goods stolen, as it is under that
form that the offence of receiving most usually occurs. The
same general rules, of course, apply to the receiving of goods
embezzled or obtained by fraud or threats, &c.
(i.) The original theft must be proved against the receiver
just as strictly as if the thief was being tried for larceny, but
by such evidence only as is admissible against the receiver.
Thus anything, which the thief said behind the back of the
receiver, is inadmissible against the latter. Any confession of
guilt made by the thief when charged with the crime will be
excluded, 4 and the jury must disregard the fact that, as some-
1 See the indictment, No. 14, in the Appendix.
1 Larceny Act, 1916, s. 40 (3).
3 Indictments Act, 1915, s. 5 (3).
* R. v. Smith (1897), 18 Cox, 470 ; and
see JR. v. ChrUHe, [1914] A. C. 545.