30/04/1954

OF CRIMINAL APPEAL (INFERIOR)

CAMILLERI LUIGI A., MONTANARO GAUCI A.J., HARDING WILLIAM

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN vs VICTOR WILLIAM HARRIS

N/A

-

N/A

ACCIDENTAL INSEPARABILITY - CONCURENT OFFENCES - FORGERY OF DOCUMENTS - MERGER OF OFFENCES - NATURAL OR JURIDICAL INSEPARABILITY - USE OF FORGED DOCUMENTS

In the case of a charge of forgery of documents, there is no consolidation of offences; because the"nexus" or inseparability between the two offences is not natural or juridical, but merely accidental, that is, created by the offender himself who is alleged to have forged the documents and to havemade use of them for the commission of a crime, when he could very well have stopped at the forgery.The rejection of the plea of merger of the offences will not, o course, be a bar, in case of conviction, and if the circumstances warrant, to the applicability of the provisions of the law relatingto the mitigation of punishment in the case of concurrent offences, or of offences being, vis-a-viseach other, a means to an end. That, however, is a matter for the trail judge in case of conviction, and if he thinks proper.