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Criminal Code Act 1983
193AInterpretation
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193A Interpretation
appropriates means assumes the rights of the owner of the
property and includes, if the person has come by the property
without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or
dealing with it as owner.
depriving means permanently depriving and appropriating or
borrowing property without meaning the person to whom it belongs
permanently to lose the property if the intention of the person
appropriating or borrowing it is to treat the property as the person's
own to dispose of (including to dispose of by lending or under a
condition as to its return that the person may not be able to
perform) regardless of the rights of the person to whom it belongs.
steals means unlawfully appropriates property of another with the
intention of depriving that person of it whether or not at the time of
the appropriation the person appropriating the property was willing
to pay for it, but does not include the appropriation of property by a
person with the reasonable belief that the property has been lost
and the owner of the property cannot be discovered.
(2) A person cannot steal land or things forming part of the land and
severed from it by the person or at the person's directions, except:
(a) if the person has legal authority to sell or dispose of land
belonging to another person and the person appropriates the
land or anything forming part of it – by dealing with it in breach
of the confidence reposed in the person; or
(b) if the person is not in possession of the land and the person
appropriates anything forming part of the land – by severing it
or causing it to be severed, or after it has been severed; or
(c) if, being in possession of the land under a tenancy or holding
over after a tenancy – the person appropriates the whole or
part of any fixture or structure let to be used with the land.
(3) If property is subject to a trust, the persons to whom it belongs are
to be regarded as including any person having a right to enforce the
trust and an intention to defeat the trust is to be regarded as an
intention to deprive any person having that right of the property.
(4) If a person (person A) receives property from or on account of
another person (person B) and is under an obligation to person B
to retain or deal with it or its proceeds in a particular way, the
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property or proceeds are to be regarded, as against person A, as
belonging to person B until the obligation is discharged.
(5) If a person obtains property by another person's mistake and is
under an obligation to make restoration, in whole or in part, of the
property or its proceeds or its value, then, to the extent of that
obligation, the property or proceeds are to be regarded, as against
the person who has so obtained it, as belonging to the person
entitled to restoration and an intention not to make restoration is to
be regarded as an intention to deprive that person of the property or
proceeds.
(6) Property of a corporation sole belongs to the corporation despite a
vacancy in the corporation.