Legislation

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendment) (E&W) Order 2026 (SI 2026 No. 41 [Link]

This SI is in force from 21st January 2026.  One effect is that a person’s spent convictions and cautions may be taken into account when assessing a person’s suitability to engage in the work specified in the SI.

Cases

R v  Lakeman [2026] EWCA Crim 4 [Link]

The Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) held that gold pieces within the ‘Old School Runescape’ game are “property” which can be the subject of the offence of theft under the Theft Act 1968.  Popplewell LJ said [84]: “Whether a digital asset constitutes property for the purposes of the Theft Act does not depend upon the four civil law requirements identified in Ainsworth [[1965] AC 1175]  or a test of rivalrousness, as such. Those criteria are aimed at determining whether such assets can constitute property for the purposes of private law rights. They may be helpful indicia in the criminal context but they are not determinative. Section 4 uses words of the widest ambit in ‘other intangible property’, whose width is reinforced by s. 5, and they should not be constrained to any greater extent than principle or policy requires. They are apt to catch any thing which can as a matter of normal use of language be described as capable of being stolen, unless there are good reasons why such a thing should be excepted. Such exceptions include the pure information principle, as we have explained it; (quite possibly) the different treatment of intellectual property; and exceptions in respect of particular sui generis assets in certain circumstances, such as those excepted in s4 of the Act and corpses and body parts, for social and historical reasons.”

Webster & Oths v The King [2026] EWCA Crim 9 [Link]

This is an interesting and important case in relation to section 20C of the Juries 1974 Act and what has been called “jury equity” (citing, among other decisions, Bushell’s Case (1670) 124 ER 1006, and HM Solicitor General v Warner [2024] EWHC 918 (KB)).