jcolvin2 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:13 pm
What a boring name for an otherwise sexy criminal offense! It's got nothing on
Grand Theft Auto. Just imagine the sales of a video game entitled
Taking and Driving Away.
Ahh, but the point is that it's not
theft (under Section 1 of the Theft Act) unless the Crown can prove an intention to
permanently deprive the rightful owner of the property. For normal thefts (burglary, robbery, pickpocketing) this isn't usually an issue, but, for cars, unless the thief tries to sell it or sets fire to it, there's always the defence that the vehicle was just borrowed, and its subsequent abandonment demonstrated the temporary nature of the dispossession.
TDA is, to be ultra-pedantic, only an offence in Scotland (
RTA 1988 Section 178). In England, the offence is "taking [a] motor vehicle or other conveyance without authority" (
Theft Act Section 12), commonly known as "twoccing" - an inspired initialism, up there with ASBO, for a behaviour that isn't exactly
evil, but is still engaged in enthusiastically by juvenile delinquents. Although not so much these days, as modern car locks actually work properly.