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Larceny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In the United States, larceny is a common law crime involving theft. Under the common law, larceny is the trespassory asportation (removal) and taking of the tangible personal property of another with the intent to deprive him or her of it permanently. In English law, the common law offense was codified into the Larceny Act 1916. In turn, the terminology and substance was converted into theft by the Theft Act 1968.
- Trespass limits right of possession—that is, lawful possession prior to the act negates trespass (see embezzlement). Even if the prior owner did not have possession (as in, lost or misplaced), then he is deemed to still have constructive possession.
- Asportation and taking involve physical movement of the property.
Larceny under common law is never applied to real property (land), or services. However, in the U.S., the Model Penal Code (MPC) states that services can be the subject of theft. Wild animals (ferae naturae) are deemed to not be the property of the owner of whatever land they are found on, so takings of wild animals are also not subject to larceny.
- The intent required is that one intended to deprive the possessor of the property "permanently." Courts have held that "permanence" is not simply keeping forever; it can include the intent to deprive the possessor of economic significance, even if there are plans to return the property later. Although the mens rea of larceny is the intent to steal, the focus is on the loss to the possessor, not the gain to the defendant.
In most of the United States the common law definitions of certain crimes have been modified. Quite often the general crime of theft has replaced larceny, and most related common law and statutory crimes such as embezzlement, false pretenses, robbery, and receipt of stolen property.
- Larceny by Trick or Deception occurs when the victim of larceny is tricked by a misrepresentation of fact into giving up possession of property. This should not be confused with false pretenses, where the victim is tricked into giving up title to the property. However in New York State this class of larceny is broken down in statutes into two types.
- Larceny by False Promise refers to where someone obtains property in exchange for a promise to do something when the person making the promise does not intend to fulfill that promise. An example would be A taking a down payment for doing work for B, and then A takes the money and runs off to the Bahamas with no intention to ever do the work.
- Larceny by false pretenses refers to obtaining property by misrepresenting facts relating to the promise. Here, an example would be where A offers to sell his car to B when A does not actually own the car.
- Grand larceny is typically defined as larceny of a significant amount of property, in some cases, it can be less. In the U.S., it is often defined as an amount valued at $200 or more. In New York, Grand Larceny refers to amounts of $1000 or more. Grand larceny is often classified as a felony with the concomitant possibility of a harsher sentence. Sometimes, the crime can be considered serious even for trivial theft. For example, in Virginia, petit larceny (a misdemeanor) occurs when the amount stolen is less than $5.00, if taken from the person (e.g. pickpocketing or robbery), or less than $200 if not taken from the person (e.g., stealing someone's property)[1]. Grand Larceny (a felony) occurs for a theft of only $5.00 or more from a person, or more than $200 if not taken from the person.[2]The same penalty applies for stealing checks as for cash or other valuables.[3]
According to the general statutes some states such as North Carolina have no formal Charge of Grand Larceny. There is however Felonious Larceny which is defined the same as Grand Larceny.