Should The Pasengers Also Sue....?
News0 min ago
No best answer has yet been selected by condriac. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Your Q is not entirely clear, but I think you are referring to two offences which were known as Taking and Driving Away or TDA and Tampering with a Motor Vehicle.
What has happened is that as the years have passed by legislation has been consolidated and new offences introduced to plug up gaps in the old law.
For example in 1968 the Theft Act altered a whole raft of offences and made offences such as burglary much more obvious to identify and prosecute.
Both the offences you refer to were involving motor vehicles and the TDA still is. I suspect that the legislation dealing with attempts (at other substantive offences) to commit cover more adequately the tampering offence.
In essence you either meddle with a car to steal it or bits of it and therefore are attempting to steal or you take away that conveyance thus stealing it.
Like shoplifting TDA is a comfort word for theft. ie Thetf Act.
There are now three distinct offences which cover most of what has been discussed:
Vehicle Interference is prosecuted under the Criminal Attempts Act 1981, s9. It covers, usually, unlawful interference with a vehicle in preparation to stealing it.
Taking Without Consent (TWOCing) is prosecuted under the Theft Act 1968, s12. It is an unusual part of the Theft Act in that it is not necessary for the prosecutor to prove that the accused intended to permanently deprive the owner of his property. Removing it from where it was left and abandoning it elsewhere is sufficient for a conviction.
Finally, Aggravated Vehicle Taking is prosecuted under the Theft Act 1968 s12a (as inserted by the Aggravated Vehicle Taking Act 1992). This covers situations where vehicles are taken and damage or injury is caused.
It is very doubtful that any of these offences would be committed by a vehicle clamper operating legitimately and within their Code of Practice..
You are probably thinking of section 25 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which says
25. If, while a motor vehicle is on a road or on a parking place provided by a local authority, a person�
(a) gets on to the vehicle, or
(b) tampers with the brake or other part of its mechanism, without lawful authority or reasonable cause he is guilty of an offence.
It would not seem to cover clampers.