THEFT

Appropriation of credit balances The law on where and when appropriation takes places in banking cases is a little uncertain, but the principles appear to be:

● presenting a cheque – appropriation is at place and point of presentation ( Ngan (1998));

● telex instructions – appropriation is possibly at the place of receipt of instructions or more probably at place and point of sending telex (confl icting cases of Tomsett (1985) and Governor of Pentonville Prison, ex p Osman (1989));

● computer instructions – appropriation is at place and point of receipt of instructions since operation of the keyboard produced a ‘virtually instantaneous’ result ( Governor of Brixton Prison, ex p Levin (1997)).