From: hex@unseen.ac.am 
  
 On 24/08/2025 12:34, Roger Hayter wrote: 
 > On 24 Aug 2025 at 11:31:43 BST, "Norman Wells"  wrote: 
 > 
 >> On 24/08/2025 10:55, Jethro_uk wrote: 
 >>> On Sat, 23 Aug 2025 23:34:13 +0100, JNugent wrote: 
 >>> 
 >>>> On 23/08/2025 08:40 PM, Jethro_uk wrote: 
 >>>> 
 >>>>> I note that S132 part 1 of the Highways Act 1991 makes it an offence to 
 >>>>> attach things (posters and presumably flags) to the road or structures 
 >>>>> thereof which includes lampposts. 
 >>>>> 
 >>>>> This being the case, would someone removing such artefacts be guilty of 
 >>>>> an offence (e.g. criminal damage) ? Would the initial unlawful 
 >>>>> placement of the item have any bearing. 
 >>>> 
 >>>> Let the public authorities enforce the law. 
 >>> 
 >>> When they have emptied my fucking bins. 
 >>> 
 >>>> Don't take it into your own hands, especially for such trivial alleged 
 >>>> breaches of the law. 
 >>> 
 >>> I had no intention of. 
 >>> 
 >>>>> I notice one enterprising chappie is removing flags from lampposts and 
 >>>>> then selling them on eBay to people to put back on lampposts ... 
 >>>> 
 >>>> Theft Act applies? 
 >>> 
 >>> Can you steal something illegally disposed of ? 
 >> 
 >> Yes if it belongs to someone else.  But you can't steal anything that is 
 >> deemed 'abandoned', and where the owner cannot be discovered by taking 
 >> reasonable steps. 
 > 
 > The mear fact that something has been left unlawfully on another's property 
 > does not mean it has abandoned. With flags on a lamp post it is reasonable 
 to 
 > assume that that is where the owner wants them to be. Not being able to 
 > determine the owner only becomes a defence if one has a lawful reason for 
 > wanting to remove the flag. 
  
 No it doesn't.  You are fully entitled to appropriate anything that has 
 been abandoned where the owner cannot be identified by taking reasonable 
 steps. 
  
 Anyway, laws don't provide lawful reasons to do something, they just 
 specify what is unlawful. 
  
 > That might apply to the highway authority, I'm not 
 > sure if it could apply to a vigilante flag remover and almost certainly not 
 to 
 > someone stealing them for profit. 
  
 If they've been abandoned and the owner can't reasonably be traced, it's 
 not theft, and they haven't been stolen whatever the person taking them 
 does with them subsequently. 
  
 All this is very clear from the Theft Act 1968, which it seems you have 
 not bothered to read. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)