Greene v The King [1949] HCA 55

High Court of Australia Latham C.J. Rich, Dixon, McTiernan and Webb JJ. Greene v The King [1949] HCA 55

ORDER Special leave to appeal granted. Appeal allowed. Order of Court of Criminal Appeal set aside. Conviction quashed.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 6 Latham C.J.

The question which arises upon this application for special leave to appeal from a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal, New South Wales is whether a false statement, or a false representation implied from words or conduct, as to the existence of a present intention in the mind of the person who makes the statement or representation can be a false pretence so as to justify a conviction under the Crimes Act 1900-1946 N.S.W., s. 179. Section 179 is in the following terms:—"Whosoever, by any false pretence, or partly by a false pretence and partly by a wilfully false promise, obtains from any person any property, with intent to defraud, shall be liable to penal servitude for five years." The offence of obtaining property by false pretences involves four elements:—there must be a false pretence; the defendant must know that the pretence was false; property must be obtained by means of the pretence; and there must be an intent to defraud. In the present case the charge against the defendant Lawrence Henry Benson Greene was that he did falsely pretend to one Thomson that he then intended and was in a position to supply and deliver to the said Thomson within a period then agreed upon certain goods, to wit, venetian blinds; by means of which false pretences he did then obtain from the said Thomson with intent to defraud a valuable security, the property of the said Thomson, to wit, a sum of £11. The prisoner was found guilty and appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal. His appeal was dismissed.