Tackling criminal conspiracies and attempted crimes

10 December 2009

The law must be updated to deal with new challenges posed, for example, by internet paedophiles and organised gangs planning criminal activities who may be operating on a world-wide basis.

The Law Commission, which advises the Government on legal reforms, has recommended a series of changes to improve and clarify the law governing conspiracy and attempts to commit crimes to make it simpler and fairer both for the prosecution and the accused.

A new report, Conspiracy and Attempts (Law Com No 318), contains draft legislation that would:

?Make it possible to bring a charge of conspiracy when conspirators deliberately take a risk that they will engage in criminal activity. Examples might be where they agree to handle large amounts of cash, realising that the cash might be the proceeds of crime. Under the present law, the conspirators cannot be convicted.

?Abolish the outdated rule that prevents married couples from being charged with conspiring to commit a crime.

?Make it possible to bring a charge of conspiracy when conspirators deliberately take a risk that they will engage in criminal activity. Examples might be where they agree to handle large amounts of cash, realising that the cash might be the proceeds of crime. Under the present law, the conspirators cannot be convicted.

?Introduce a new defence of reasonableness to a charge of conspiracy. It would apply, for example, to an undercover police officer entering into a conspiracy in order at a later point to expose the other participants.
Jeremy Horder, the Law Commissioner leading the project, said:

"New technology has made it easier than ever for criminal conspiracies to be organised world-wide, and this development poses new challenges that the existing law, already uncertain in its scope, was not designed to meet. The reforms we recommend will make the law fit for purpose in meeting the challenge of 21st century criminal activity."

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