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Honest and reasonable mistake is a defence that our criminal lawyers often use to beat charges where the is not required to prove that our clients’ intended to commit the crime.
An honest and reasonable mistake of fact is very literal. An honest and reasonable mistake of fact occurs where you commit an offence under an honest but mistaken belief as to facts. If true it would mean no criminal offence was committed. The belief must be reasonable and have a proper basis.
Honest and reasonable mistake of fact is distinguishable from an honest and reasonable mistake of law, which is not an offence. The differences between a mistake of fact and law are highlighted in the examples below:
To raise the defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact there must be evidence of the following:
The first part of the test is a subjective assessment of whether the belief is honestly held. The second part of the test is an objective assessment of whether the belief was reasonable in the circumstances.
To raise honest and reasonable mistake of fact our criminal lawyers put forward evidence of the honest and reasonable belief. At which point the police must prove there was no honest and reasonable mistake of fact beyond reasonable doubt.