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Question of the week

Criminal Damage

Criminal Liability · SQE1-style single best answer

A shop owner falls out with the wholesaler who supplies him, over an invoice he says he has already settled. He sends the wholesaler a text message: "Write it off by Friday or I will burn your delivery van to the ground." He has no intention of going near the van; what he wants is for the wholesaler to believe he will do it and drop the invoice. The wholesaler takes the message seriously and shows it to the police. The van is untouched.

Which offence, if any, has the shop owner committed by sending the text message?

  1. Option A. Incorrect answer. He has committed no offence, because he never intended to go near the van or set light to it.
  2. Option B. Correct answer. He has committed the threats offence, because he intended the wholesaler to fear it would be carried out.Correct
  3. Option C. Incorrect answer. He has committed the possession offence, because he had at the shop everything needed to set the van alight.
  4. Option D. Incorrect answer. He has committed simple criminal damage, because a threat to burn property is treated as damaging it.
  5. Option E. Incorrect answer. He has committed no offence, because a threat sent by text is not a threat made to another person.

Why

The correct answer is B. Section 2 CDA 1971 makes it an offence, without lawful excuse, to make to another a threat to destroy or damage property belonging to that other or to a third person, intending that the other would fear the threat would be carried out. Everything the section requires is present: a threat to burn the wholesaler's van, communicated to him, made precisely so that he would believe it. The offence is complete on communication; no damage need follow and no step towards it need be taken.

A is incorrect because it fixes on the wrong intention: what must be intended is that the other should fear the threat will be carried out, not that the defendant should carry it out. C is incorrect because s.3 requires custody or control of an article held with intent to use it to cause damage, which is not made out by ordinary stock on the premises. D is incorrect because s.1(1) requires actual destruction or damage, and the van is untouched. E is incorrect because the section says nothing about how a threat is conveyed; a text message is made to the person who receives it.

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