R v Turner 2023
G, a surgeon, who had been acting as a locum at a hospital, was charged with attempting to obtain and obtaining money by deception contrary to section 15(1) of the Theft Act 1968 by falsely pretending that money was due to him for work that had in fact been carried out by someone else.
His defence was that he had not acted dishonestly because the money was due to him as consultation fees. The jury was directed that it was for them to decide by applying their own standards of honesty, whether G had acted 'dishonestly'. He was convicted and appealed.
Held
Appeal dismissed. Conviction upheld.
Where a person is charged with dishonesty the jury must decide as to his guilt in the following manner:
1. Whether, according to the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people, what was done was dishonest. If it was not, then that was the end of the matter - acquit.
2. However, if it was dishonest by those standards, then the jury must decide whether the person realised that what he was doing was by those standards, dishonest.
In this case there was no misdirection; the jury had rejected G's evidence on all counts and therefore dishonesty had to be found.
View the full case document here, with links to related legislation and similar cases.