Shoplifting.

Clonliffe Resident

I've just got off the phone to a friend who's in total meltdown. He took a bottle of wine from a shop without paying, then ten minutes later went back to the shop and handed it to the security guy and said "I took this earlier. I'm sorry." Apparently, he has done this several times before in different shops (weird?). BUT, this time the security guy told him that he had his car reg details. And now he's totally in a panic. Would the Garda act on this if the shop reported it?

i would imagine it was a warning, like “don’t come back”. I’d tell your friend to forget about it and cop on.

BaronVon

He'll get an adult caution if he's never been caught before.

Victor

Your friend needs to sit down with someone and discuss why he is doing things like this. His GP might be a good place to start looking for someone.

For the moment, try be there for your friend, but realise that if it is a repeat behaviour it may happen again and there may be more serious repercussions.

Claw Hammer

It is unlikely he will be charged if he went back. A person has to intend to steal and it is inconsistent with an intention to steal, to bring back the item.

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120587351#Comment_120587351

Not necessarily. Someone can have the full intent to steal and then have regrets afterwards.

NUTLEY BOY

Is it not the essence of a theft offence to intend to deprive the owner of the purloined property of it permanently ?

That said, it could be argued on the evidence, as per Victor, that OP's friend completed the offence and then sought to mitigate the gravity of the act post facto.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120587473#Comment_120587473

Maybe so but the prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. If the defence raises a mistake of inadvertence or mistake the prosecution must counter that. The accused must get the benefit of the doubt.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120588079#Comment_120588079

Thew requirement to deprive permanently went in 2001. The act says depriving” means temporarily or permanently depriving.

The prosecution must negative any evidence led by the defence which raises a doubt about his intentions. A person secreting an item in a shop and leaving the shop furtively is going to have a much harder job claiming a mistake than someone who walks out of a shop openly with an item and claims absent-mindedness.

Peregrinus

Even under the old law which required an intention permanently to deprive, the fact that you changed your mind after — even soon after — and brought the item back was irrelevant. What matters is your state of mind at the time you take the item.