Larceny - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition larceny

Definition :

Larceny [fr. larcin, Fr.; latrocinium, Lat.], contracted from latrociny, the unlawful taking and carrying away of things personal, with intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same. Larceny is a felony, and is either simple or accompanied with circumstances of aggravation:

(1) Simple larceny at Common Law, or plain theft. To constitute the offence there must be an unlawful taking, which implies that the goods must pass from the possession of a true owner (including one who has a qualified property only in the goods, as a bailee), and without his consent; where there is, then, no change of possession, or a change of it by consent, or a change from the possession of a person without title to that of the true owner, there cannot be a larceny. As to the difference between property parted with by the owner of his own free will, however fradulently influenced, in other words, between property 'entrusted' and 'possession by a trick,' see Oppenheimer v. Frazer, (1907) 2 KB 50, and Lake v. Simmons, (1926) 2 KB 51, and see FALSE PRETENCES. If a delivery be obtained from the owner by a person having animus furandi at the time, and he afterwards unlawfully appropriates the goods in pursuance of that intent, it is larceny. There must not be only a taking, but a carrying away (cepit et asportavit). A bare removal from the place in which he found the goods, though the thief does not quite make off with them, is a sufficient asportation or carrying away. It must be of personal goods, and not of the realty or things adhering thereto, or savouring thereof. The taking and carrying away must be with intent to deprive the owner of the thing taken or, as it is expressed, animo furandi. Larceny may be committed of a thing the owner of which is unknown, provided it appear that there is some person other than the taker in whom the ownership resides. Larceny was formerly divided into petit, where the value of the property was not more than twelve pence, and grand, where it exceeded that amount; but this distinction was abolished by s. 2 of the (English) Larceny Act, 1861. The punishment for simple larceny is in ordinary cases penal servitude for the term of three years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and if the offender be a male under the age of 16 years, with or without whipping.

(2) Larceny in a dwelling-house. Whosoever shall steal in any dwelling-house any chattel, money, or valuable security to the value of 5l. or more shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen years; and whosoever shall steal any chattel, money, or valuable security in a dwelling-house, or valuable security in a dwelling-house, and shall, by any menace or threat, put anyone being therein in bodily fear, shall be liable to the same punishment.

(3) Larceny from the person. it is either:

(a) Privately stealing, as picking a person's pocket;

(b) Open and violent larceny from the person, or robbery, called by the civilians rapine; as to which, see ROBBERY.

Embezzlement is distinguished from the offence of larceny as being committed in respect of property which is not, at the time, in the actual or legal possession of the owner. See EMBEZZLEMENT; and Larceny Act, 1916, ss. 17-19.

The (English) Larceny Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5, c. 50), together with those sections of the (English) Larceny Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 96), which this Act left unrepealed, constitute with subsequent amendments a complete code of the subject. See as to larceny generally, Archbold's or Roscoe's Crim. Evid. and Russell on Crimes.

The word larceny in English law contemplates permanent gain or loss and is different from 'theft' under the Indian Penal Code, K.N. Mehra v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1957 SC 369 (372).