Paid Twice

The Accused's company supplied goods and services to a large retailer, which paid the invoice by cheque. A month later, through an error in the retailer's accounts department, a second cheque for the same amount was issued to the company. The Accused deposited it, as he had the first. He then wrote a series of company cheques in his own favour, reducing the account to practically nothing. A security officer for the retailer left repeated messages about the mistaken payment and was never able to reach him. The trial judge found as a fact that the Accused knew the second cheque had been issued by mistake when he deposited it and drew the money out. He was charged with theft. The defence was that a cheque made out to the company and mailed to it by the payer became the company's property when it arrived, so that whatever the Accused did with the money afterwards was at most a debt to be collected in a civil suit, not a crime.