Margaret, an elderly lady,
invites Helen, her next-door neighbour, to come into her house as she would
like Helen to run an errand for her. While Margaret goes out of the lounge to
fetch her purse from the kitchen, Helen helps herself to two chocolate liqueurs
from a dish on Margaret's coffee table.
Margaret returns from the
kitchen and says that she must have left her purse upstairs in her bedroom and
would Helen mind fetching it for her. Whilst on the upstairs landing, Helen
notices an expensive bottle of perfume in the bathroom. She goes into the
bathroom to spray some on to her wrist, but then decides to take the whole
bottle which she slips into her pocket.
When Helen gets back
downstairs with the purse she gives it to Margaret who hand her a £20 note and
asks Helen to go to the local store and buy her a few groceries. Without
asking, Helen borrows Margaret's bicycle to go to the store. While at the store she sees a DVD which is expensive at £14.99 so decides to switch price labels with one priced at £9.99. In doing so, she is watched on CCTV by the Store Manager who confronts her as she is approaching the till with the DVD in her hand. Helen panics and pushes the Manager to one side in order to escape.
She goes to another store and buys the groceries but
keeps £2 change, which she uses to buy herself a magazine. She returns to
Margaret's house and delivers the groceries, telling her that there is no
change.
Discuss the potential criminal liability of Helen for theft, burglary and robbery, together with any possible defences that she could plead.
[OCR, Jan 2003 as adapted by Dr Peter Jepson and Mrs Anna Lindley.]