What is Criminal Conspiracy?

Criminal Conspiracy is governed by the Criminal Law Act 1977.

The offence of conspiracy is defined in Section 1 and is as follows:

• Subject to the following provisions of this part of this act, if a person agrees with any other person or persons, that a course of conduct shall be pursued which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions, either-

• Will necessarily amount to involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to the agreement, or

• Would do so but for the distance of facts which render the commission of the offence, or any of the offences impossible.

• He is guilty of conspiracy to commit the offence or offences in question.

Common forms of conspiracy or offences relating to conspiracy include conspiracy to supply drugs, conspiracy to possess for sale or transfer prohibited weapons and conspiracy to commit fraud. These are just some common examples as conspiracy can cover a wide range of offences.

However, the key to conspiracy is that the conduct has to amount to involve the commission of an offence or offences by two or more parties to an agreement.

Conspiracy can be and is far more complicated and this is just a simple introduction.

If you are facing criminal charges whilst on police bail and under investigation and are not represented by a solicitor, please feel free to contact us to discuss this matter further. We have extensive experience of dealing with conspiracy matters and specifically people charged with conspiracy offences.  We partner with the Legal Aid Agency to offer Legal Aid subject to menas testing.

In this series of blogs, we intend to explore some case. We will consider studies of examples of cases where people have faced charges of conspiracy relating to different types of offences.

We will consider potential defenses and demonstrate generally  how we investigate and prepare those defenses and prepare the case generally for trial.

Each case of course is different and unique and offers its own challenges however our breadth of experience equips us to be able to test the strength of the Prosecution case well in advance of trial.

We will next look at some examples of cases of conspiracy to supply drugs in the next blog.

Call IMS now on 01744 612549 for a free initial consultation.