ABSTRACT
Moreover, it may have been far simpler to have charged the defendant with an attempted theft of the petrol, provided, of course that they had gone beyond the ‘more than merely preparatory’ stage, as required by s 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. On the other hand, the approach taken by the court is certainly pragmatic and is in keeping with the mischief the section was designed to deal with. To put it another way, s 25 would permit the prosecution of a defendant, even before he had gone beyond the preparatory stages required by the law on attempts.18
