Our expert criminal lawyers for stealing (Larceny) offences can help you:
- Obtain bail.
- Be found not guilty.
- Receive a lenient sentence, like no conviction and no prison.
You will be represented by a team of award-winning criminal lawyers, with 500+ five-star Google reviews, who offer fixed fees and free first consultations.
You can read our reviews here.
Stealing (Larceny)
Larceny is the legal word for stealing or theft. Larceny is non-violent theft, as opposed to robbery, and doesn’t involve the taking of property directly from a person, as would occur with the offence of stealing from a person. Larceny can be committed in many ways, from stealing chocolate at a supermarket to stealing cash out of a register. The value of the property stolen can be sentimental or worth millions of dollars.
Our criminal lawyers have had great success in defending a Larceny charge and having our clients found not guilty. We use a range of defences, including identification (it wasn’t you who stole the property), arguing the property wasn’t stolen, that you intended to return the property, or that the property belonged to you.
If you intend to plead guilty to larceny (e.g., stealing or theft charge), our criminal lawyers have a proven track record of not only keeping our clients out of jail but also having no conviction recorded for larceny offences.
Larceny vs. Theft?
Larceny is a legal term, developed over hundreds of years, and which has a specific legal meaning in that a person took and carried away property belonging to another person, without that person’s consent, and with an intention to permanently deprive the owner of the property.
Theft, on the other hand, is a word used to describe a much broader range of dishonesty offences including larceny, identity theft, robbery, armed robbery, fraud, embezzlement, receiving stolen property and more.
The use of the words theft and larceny are sometimes misused due to the influence of American popular culture. Petty Theft, common theft, and grand larceny are American offences. The American offences of petty theft, common theft, and grand larceny are differentiated by the value of the property stolen. In NSW, the offence of one offence of larceny covers all the conduct contained in the three American offences and whilst the maximum penalty will change, depending on the value of the property stolen, the offence charged is always larceny itself.
Pleading not guilty
You will be found not guilty of the offence of Stealing (Larceny) if the police cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt:
- You took and carried away property; and
- That property belonged to another person; and
- You intended to permanently deprive the owner of that property; and
- The taking was done without the consent of the owner.
You can read more information about pleading not guilty here.
There must be an intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property, which intent must exist at the time of the taking, so that if the obtaining of the property is innocent, a later intent to steal is insufficient. If the accused takes the property without deciding whether to keep it, he does not commit Larceny.
The Claim of Right is a defence against Larceny. A person will have a claim of right where they possess a genuine belief that they have a bona fide claim of right to certain money. If you believed you were entitled to take the property, it does not matter that you did not believe you were entitled to take it in the manner you did.
Additionally, duress is a defence that can be used.
Pleading guilty
If you agree that you have committed the offence (and the police are able to prove so), it is best to plead guilty as you will normally receive a discount on your sentence. By pleading guilty, you are demonstrating to the court that you are remorseful, which the court looks favourably on.
The maximum punishment for larceny in NSW is five years’ imprisonment.
However, if the matter is heard in the Local Court, the penalties depend on the value of the stolen property.
The following maximum penalties apply:
- Value exceeding $5,000: Maximum penalty is limited to two years imprisonment and/or a fine of $11,000;
- Value does not exceed $5,000: Maximum penalty is 12 months imprisonment and/or a fine of $5,500;
- Value does not exceed $2,000: Maximum penalty is two years imprisonment and/or a fine of $2,200.
You can read more about pleading guilty here.
What factors will the court consider in sentencing for larceny?
The court will consider several factors when deciding the appropriate penalty for larceny. These are the “objective factors” which determine the objective seriousness of the larceny offence in comparison to other cases of larceny, as well as the “Subjective factors” or the defendants’ subjective circumstances
Objective Factors
- Value of the property stolen – The higher the value, the more serious the crime.
- What was stolen – The courts differentiate items stolen out of need (e.g., food) vs. for materialistic reasons (e.g., designer clothes).
- Planning and sophistication – The more time the defendant took to plan the offence, the more opportunity they had to consider their actions. As such, the court looks more harshly on offences that were well planned or required a high level of sophistication vs. those enacted on a whim.
- Personal use vs. profit – If the defendant stole the item with the intention to sell it for profit, the courts consider this a more serious crime.
- Alone or part of a group – Crimes involving a group of people require a higher level of planning and sophistication. They are therefore considered more serious by the courts.
Subjective factors
- Criminal record of the defendant, and if this is the first offence
- Age and maturity of the defendant.
- Financial circumstances of the defendant
- Their family circumstances and their upbringing
- The defendant’s education and employment
- Their mental health, and
- Steps were taken by the defendant to rehabilitate
Contact Australian Criminal Law Group
Our criminal lawyers, with 500+ five-star Google reviews, can beat a larceny charge or obtain a lenient sentence for you if you plead guilty.
Call us on (02) 8815 8167 for your free first conference or submit a website enquiry.
Case Studies
No conviction – Section 10 due to personal circumstances
Our criminal defence lawyer represented a young woman who plead guilty to stealing more than $5,000.00 from a deposit box at a bank. Mr Correy submitted that stealing was impulsive and that the young woman had been neglected by her mother in that she had been taking her daughter’s wage to gamble for much of her working life, which affected her ability in that split moment to distinguish right from wrong. The Magistrate agreed with Mr Correy’s submissions and dealt with the matter pursuant to section 10, meaning no conviction was recorded.
Section 10 for employee theft linked to gambling addiction
Our criminal defence lawyer represented a man who had a gambling addiction and had been charged with stealing $15,000.00 from the account of a customer at a bank where he worked. He was not charged until four years after the stealing. Mr Correy submitted in the four years, he had addressed his gambling addiction and there was no good reason for the delay in bringing the charges, which he had lost his job over. Mr Correy submitted he had rebuilt his life and may lose his new career if a conviction was recorded. Given the delay, the Magistrate agreed and dealt with the matter pursuant to section 10, meaning no conviction was recorded.
Larceny charge dismissed because police could not prove property was stolen
Our criminal defence lawyer represented a man charged with Larceny. The police found him with another person’s phone immediately after the person’s car had been broken into. The person whose phone was stolen did not wish to give evidence at court and did not. Our criminal lawyer objected to any evidence of the phone being in the car as being hearsay. As such, the police could not prove the phone was stolen, and the magistrate found our client not guilty.
No jail – Drug addiction and the circumstances surrounding the offence
Our criminal defence lawyer represented a man charged with a supply of 32g of cocaine, larceny (stealing of $5,000, and possessing housebreaking implements after he stole a safe from a drug dealer and broke into it. Mr Correy successfully argued his client was a drug user who had opportunistically ripped off another criminal, putting himself in danger to feed his habit. The judge agreed and did not send Mr Correy’s client to jail.
Found not guilty – Ownership of property could not be proved
Our criminal defence lawyer represented a woman who was found with clothes in her car that still had the labels and security tags on them. There was no evidence in the brief as to which store the clothes came from. Our criminal lawyer argued that there was no evidence of who the owner was, and therefore the offence could not be proved. The magistrate agreed and dismissed the charge, finding our client not guilty.
Source:
The Crimes Act 1900 No 40, Current version for 1 April 2022 to date (accessed 23 April 2022 at 14:19) https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-1900-040
This information is intended as a general guide to law only. It should not be relied on as legal advice, and it is recommended that you speak with a qualified lawyer about your situation.
Australian Criminal Law Group and its suppliers make every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and validity of the information provided on its web pages. At the time of updating, this information was correct, however, given the laws in NSW and Australia are continually changing, the Australian Criminal Law Group makes no warranties or representations as to its accuracy.