Issa s/o Ntoka v. R., Crim. App. 217-D-68, Georges C. J.

Issa s/o Ntoka v. R., Crim. App. 217-D-68, Georges C. J.

Accused having sold eight kilos of cashew nuts valued at Shs. 5/75, to the weighing clerk (P.W.1) of the Nanyanga Co-operative, altered the chit issued to him to read 988 kilos, valued Shs. 650/75, and presented for payment to P.W. 2, who paid that sum. Accused admitted that he was paid in excess, but stated that he was illiterate.

            Held: Illiterate though he might be, it is clear that accused could not have thought that eight kilos of cashew nuts were worth Shs. 650/-, and that he should have enquired. (2) Conviction on the count of stealing quashed, but a conviction for obtaining by false pretences substituted. “(T)he most intelligible distinction between larceny by trick and obtaining by false pretences is that in the former the person parting with the property intends to part with possession only, not with the property, while in the latter, he intends to part with both.” The victim here clearly intended to part with both possession and property of the money he handed to accused.