Lawful excuse Definition

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GLOSSARY

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What does Lawful excuse mean?

To act with lawful excuse means to act with lawful justification.

For example, a police officer who has to force open and damage a door to execute a warrant of arrest. The offence of criminal damage under s 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 includes the words 'without lawful excuse'. This phrase is partly defined in s 5, which provides in subs (3) that the required belief in the matters provided by that section need not be justified if the belief was honestly held.

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Arson

ArsonDamage to property caused by fire is charged as arson. A person who without lawful excuse destroys or damages any property belonging to another by fire, intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged, shall be guilty of the offence of arson under section 1(3) of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 (CDA 1971).For information on criminal damage, see Practice Note: Criminal damage.In R v Booth arson was not specified in the charge and the court ruled the indictment a nullity. The court revisited this issue in R v Drayton, ruling that the allegation must at least be identified as 'damage by fire' so that the defendant has no doubt that the allegation is one of fire damage, which has a more severe penalty than other simple criminal damage.Simple arson, where life is not endangered, is triable either way. Where the criminal damage forming the basis of the charge is 'significant damage by fire' then a Crown...

Criminal damage

GeneralSimple criminal damage is triable either way unless the value of the alleged damage is £5,000 or less, in which case the offence will be treated as if it were triable only summarily.Where the damage is caused by fire or the racially aggravated form of the offence is charged, then even if the value of the damage is less than £5,000 it will be triable either way. Equally, where the defendant is charged with two or more offences of the same or similar character, and the total value exceeds £5,000, the offence will be triable either way. Where the value of the damage is over £5,000, criminal damage is typically tried summarily, unless it appears to the court that one of the following aggravating features are present:•deliberate fire-raising•the offence was committed by a group•the damage is of high value, or•the offence has clear racial motivation, and the court's sentencing powers are insufficientThe Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Guidelines suggest that the Crown Court may be the appropriate venue for offences where the...

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