Criminal Property Law
3. Property Damage Principles
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 29 Aug 2015
- Private property includes:
- ‘real property’ such as land or dwellings upon the land; and
- ‘personal property’ such as cash or motor vehicles.
- Public property means any property or object in a public space. It includes:
- bus shelters;
- train station platforms and buildings;
- public spaces such a playgrounds or parks;
- streetlights; and
- wharves and jetties.
- To destroy something means to make or cause it to be useless such as:
- shredding a document; or
- smashing a window.
- To damage something means the permanent or temporary reduction of functionality or value. It can include things like:
- defacing an item such as by grafitti;
- sabotaging a machine;
- erasure of electronic data; and
- dumping waste upon land.
- Damage can also occur by omission (failure to act) where the offender has created a dangerous situation and does not take steps to fix it. An example of this might be where a person accidentally drops a lit cigarette and starts a small fire. They have an obligation to put the fire out or call the fire brigade.
- The damaged property must belong to another person as it is not an offence to damage property wholly owned by you. The exception to this rule is money.
- It is a criminal offence under Commonwealth law to intentionally damage or disfigure any coin or banknote that is lawful currency in Australia even if it is your own money.
- Property belongs to a person where that person:
- owns it;
- has possession or control of it; or
- has a right to it because of a legal arrangement such as a mortgage or loan agreement.
- This applies to property that is:
- jointly owned by the offender such as a jointly owned car, or
- owned by a company.
- While private property must belong to someone it is not necessary to prove the identity of that other person.
- A person intends to destroy or damage property if:
- their purpose is to destroy or damage the property; or
- they know that their actions will more than likely result in destroying or damaging property.
- The age of the offender may be relevant in assessing whether they knew their actions would result in the property being damaged or destroyed.
- There are common law defences to a charge of wilful damage that have been accepted in a series of cases decided in the past. They are:
- where the accused acted in self-defence; and
- where the accused has the consent of the owner of the property.
- In Victoria if you are convicted of wilful damage you may be ordered to pay compensation to the value of the damage caused.
- This is a court order made under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).
- The compensation order has the same effect as a judgment debt. It can be enforced against your property or your earnings.
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