ABSTRACT
However, there may still be ways round the problem. While the courts accept there has been no ‘obtaining’ in such circumstances, there has been an ‘appropriation’ of the other’s bank balance on presentation of the cheque374 and,
as long as the account is in credit, an intention permanently to deprive was accepted in Chan Man-sin v AG of Hong Kong.375 A further way round the problem has been promulgated by Professor Smith in that, when receiving the cheque, the defendant could be regarded as appropriating a piece of paper with special qualities, that is, the right to sue the bank for the required sum.376 But it is this very ‘special quality’ which is the thing in action denied in Preddy as belonging to another.
