‘With the intention of permanently depriving the owner of the property’

‘With the intention of permanently depriving the owner of the property’

This is defined in section 7 of the Theft Ordinance. A person will be deemed to have the intention to permanently deprive if it is his intention to treat the property as his own to dispose of regardless of the others’ rights.

Simply put, he had taken the property and treated it as his own to dispose of, regardless of the rights of the victim. 

Therefore, theft does not require a person to have the intention to keep the stolen goods for his own use. If a person had taken a vehicle and subsequently abandoned it, he would be regarded as having the intention to permanently deprive. A person who took property and asked for ransom, with the intention of giving the property back after receipt of ransom, would still be held as having that intention to permanently deprive. 

Mere borrowing is not enough to constitute an intention to permanently deprive, unless the intention is to return the thing in such a changed state that it can truly be said that all its goodness or virtue is gone. Therefore, if a person ‘borrows’ a train ticket and completes the ride, the ‘goodness’ or ‘virtue’ from the train ticket is gone as it can now no longer be used for a train ride.

Further, section 7(2) of the Theft Ordinance states that a person having possession or control of the property belonging to others would be deemed to have treated the property as his own to dispose of regardless of the owner’s rights, if he gives up that possession or control with a condition for its return, but that condition might not be performed. An example of this is when a person pawns an item belonging to someone else, claiming that he will redeem it later, but the redemption may not be performed. 

If borrowing and lending is for a period of time and in the circumstances making it equivalent to an outright taking or disposal of that property, the taking would be with intention to permanently deprive.