clearing out their bungalow. It was agreed that the appellant should visit the bungalow to see if there was anything he wished to purchase. The appellant and Tony went to a bungalow in Broadstairs and the appellant took some jewellery. He said that he did not realise that Tony had told him a pack of lies.

Watkins LJ: ... [His Lordship referred to the judgment of Eveleigh LJ in R v Hale (1978) 68 Cr App R 415 at 418 and continued:] Nor do we think that in a given criminal enterprise involving theft there can necessarily be only one ‘appropriation’ within s 3(1) of the Theft Act 1968. It seems to us that the question of whether, when and by whom there has been an appropriation of property has always to be determined by the jury having regard to the circumstances of the case. The length of time involved, the manner in which it came about and the number of people who can properly be said to have taken part in an appropriation will vary according to those circumstances. In a case of burglary of a dwellinghouse and before any property is removed from it, it may consist of a continuing process and involve either a single appropriation by one or more persons or a number of appropriations of the property in the house by several persons at different times during the same incident. If this were not a correct exposition of the law of appropriation, startling and disturbing consequences could arise out of the presence of two or more trespassers in a dwelling-house.