Organized Crime In The New Millennium

Sections 2 to 6 of the Theft Act 1968 have effect as regards the interpretation and
operation of section 1 of that Act. Except as otherwise provided by that Act, sections 2
to 6 of that Act apply only for the purposes of section 1 of that Act.
Appropriates
Section 3 provides:
(1) Any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation,
and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without
stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner.
(2) Where property or a right or interest in property is or purports to be transferred for
value to a person acting in good faith, no later assumption by him of rights which he
believed himself to be acquiring shall, by reason of any defect in the transferor’s title,
amount to theft of the property.
Property
Section 4(1) provides that:
"Property" includes money and all other property, real or personal, including things in
action and other intangible property.
Edward Griew said that section 4(1) could, without changing its meaning, be reduced,
by omitting words, to:
"Property" includes … all … property.
Sections 4(2) to (4) provide that the following can only be stolen under certain
circumstances:
Land or things forming part of land and severed from it (s. 4(2))
Mushrooms growing wild on any land, or the flowers, fruit or foliage of plants
growing wild on any land (s. 4(3))
Wild creatures or the carcases of wild creatures (s. 4(4))
Intangible property
Confidential information and trade secrets are not property within the meaning of
section 4.
The words "other intangible property" include export quotas that are transferable for
value on a temporary or permanent basis.
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