ABSTRACT
In R v Bellman [1989] AC 836; [1989] 1 All ER 22, the House of Lords held that counts can be joined in an indictment even if they are mutually contradictory. The defendant in that case was charged with conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the importation of controlled drugs and with obtaining property by deception. If the defendant had intended to import the drugs, he was guilty of the first offence; if he took the money from the buyers but did not intend to import the drugs to give to them, he was guilty of the second offence. These inconsistent allegations could properly appear in a single indictment.
