Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 09:15:06

From: Andrew Tettenborn

Subject: Illegal contracts and restitution

Neil Foster wrote:

A minor and possibly irrelevant question: what crime was the "conman" convicted of? Fraud? But then doesn't that mean the law is saying he "ought to have kept his promise" to arrange for the woman's death? Maybe there are some offences relating to encouraging unlawful homicide.

The crime was almost certainly dishonestly obtaining money by deception (Theft Act 1968, s.15). And, as regards Neil's point, I can't see why the enforceability of the "contract" (if any) should be relevant here. The deception practised by the conman was saying he intended to procure a hitman when he didn't have any such intention: this clearly caused the victim to pay up, and the conman was equally clearly dishonest. It's exactly the same as the case of the dishonest drug-dealer who induces me to pay £2,000 for crack cocaine intending to keep the money and not supply the drugs: he is rightly guilty of fraud.

The oddity comes in the fact that the English criminal court's jurisdiction to order a convicted felon to compensate his victim applies even if there would have been no liability had the victim brought suit in a civil court. But that rule is pretty well established, and we're stuck with it.

Andrew

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