Taking from a skip on a private driveway

[ritchiegang]

A neighbour just knocked on our door, telling us that a man had driven up walked up my driveway to the skip (thats actually blocked in by my car !) took a pedal scooter and put it in his car, my neighbour asked if he had permission and was given a mouthful !!! if the man had knocked I would have told him that he was welcome to take it, but the reason it was in the skip was because everytime anybody used it, they ended up with cuts and sctraches up the leg and the chain always pinged off causing it to stop abruptly. My neighbour has the car registration number, should I contact some one so that the man knows its dangerous ???

[Buenchico]

It's not theft to take something when you genuinely believe that the owner wouldn't object to you doing so. (It's immaterial as to whether the owner actually would mind or not). The Theft Act 1968 states:
"A person’s appropriation of property belonging to another is not to be regarded as dishonest . . . if he appropriates the property in the belief that he would have the other’s consent if the other knew of the appropriation and the circumstances of it".

However it's unlikely that any court would uphold a claim for damages against you if the car driver (or someone he gave/sold the scooter to) suffered any injury from using the scooter. (A court would almost certainly rule that, given the circumstances under which the scooter was acquired, it was up to the person who took it to check it for safety).

So 'the law', per se, isn't directly relevant here. If, through your public spiritedness, you want to try to warn the guy about the condition of the scooter, you're welcome to try but the police would almost certainly refuse to get involved (because no offence has been committed) so you'd find it difficult to trace the car. It's possible, under limited circumstances, to find out the registered owner of a vehicle through the DVLA. (That's how private car park operators pursue people who don't pay for their parking). But I doubt that the circumstances you refer to would satisfy the DVLA's requirements for providing the information.

Chris

[ELVIS68]

I wouldn`t bother trying to trace him, there are many skip monkeys out there who drive round looking for a bargain

[hc4361]

It is theft and there has been prosecutions for it.
http://www.dailymail....k-food-Tesco-bin.html

[ELVIS68]

That`s not the same as taking from a skip is it?

[Buenchico]

It seems, Hc4361, that the CPS need a few lessons in law!
http://www.legislatio...pga/1968/60/section/2

[hc4361]

Why isn't it, Elvis?
The food was put in a skip like container to be destroyed.

[Macallan]

One near me got fined if you google it you will find lots of cases.

[hc4361]

It's all down to interpretation, buenchico.

Do you see it as different to this scenario?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12409097

[Macallan]

hc4361 Lot of money in clothing bags near me they pay £5 for 10kg or £500 a Tonne cash on the spot.

[hc4361]

I'm fully aware of that. Charity shops even make money from the clothes a tramp would turn down - sold by the weight as rags.

[ELVIS68]

hc....Skip like container, aka a bin is not a skip, wasn`t out the back of the store in a public no go area by any chance was it?

[starone]

I don't consider this to be stealing, and I am a very honest person. The stuff that supermarkets throw away is fair game for anyone who wants to take it (IMO) I hope the judge is wise enough to throw this case out, it is so trivial. Or if not the jury finds her not guilty. I could not be bothered to do it myself, but admire anyone who does. Can't understand why they don't give it to the homeless anyway, or the Salvation Army who feed the homeless.

[grasscarp]

I would have been only too happy for anyone to take things from my skip in the past week. I am having work done on the roof and it was full, so had to pay 220 quid to have it removed and an empty one put in its place. At the cost of these things every little helps!

[Buenchico]

Hc4361:
It should be clear to anyone that goods left out for charities are unlikely to have been put out for 'just anyone' to take away.

However, as shown in my link above, it's a statutory defence to show that you had a genuine belief that the owner of the property would not object to you taking it. A good analogy is that of Lord Melchett (the executive director of Greenpeace) who admitted that, with 27 others, he had destroyed a field of GM crops. Their defence was that they had a 'genuine belief' that the presence of the crop presented a risk to neighbouring (non-GM) crops. The court ruled that it was irrelevant as to whether their belief was well-founded or not. As long as it was genuine it provided a statutory defence.

[RobertW777]

Putting something in the skip without permission is theft.
Anything in the skip becomes the property of the skip hire company.