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Handling stolen goods.

What is meant by 'handling stolen goods'

Handling stolen goods is an offence, if you have stolen goods that you know or think were stolen you can be prosecuted and you will face a criminal trial and, if found guilty, you will face a large fine or a prison term, the prosecution process will consider honesty in obtaining a verdict.

What is defined as ‘handling stolen goods’?

Goods are classed as anything excluding land, for example this can be money, a TV, clothing or jewellery, the Theft Act states goods as any item that has been stolen in or outside of the UK.

So what is ‘handling’?

This is covered by the Act in several different ways the main ones are that a person has possession of the item, or has arranged to take possession.

If a person has helped in the process of removal, storage or passing on of the stolen goods, or if they have done so for the benefit of someone else.

The person to be charged with this offence must be aware that the goods were stolen or believes they may have been.

If the goods have been sold the money made is considered stolen, so if a person has benefitted from the sale of stolen goods they will be charged with the same offence.
It’s possible a thief will be charged with handling stolen goods, but it’s not always the case a thief will be charged with theft, it’s the next person in the chain that will be charged, that is unless the thief has kept hold of the stolen goods in which case they can be charged with theft and handling stolen goods.

A person found guilty of handling stolen goods will face a prison term not exceeding fourteen years, but a judge will look at culpability, which is the level of blame and the amount of harm caused by the crime.

A judge taking these into consideration can impose anything from a fine, community service through to imprisonment. Other factors will also have an effect on the sentencing such as a guilty plea or how much co-operation the defendant has given the authorities.

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