Complicity

Under the criminal law, there are provisions that extend liability for criminal offending and enable persons to be responsible for a criminal offence that was committed by more than one person jointly, even in circumstances where individual participants may not have individually committed every element of the offence. 

Generally speaking these concepts fall into two categories: 

1. Joint Criminal Enterprise (where there is a joint agreement to commit an offence); and
2. Common Purpose or “Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise” (where the crime committed is different to the one that was as agreed but was foreseeable). 

Joint Criminal Enterprise

In Tangye (1997) 92 A Crim R 545 at 556-7 Hunt CJ at CL set out the principles relating to joint criminal enterprise which have been accepted in other cases:

“(1) The law is that, where two or more persons carry out a joint criminal enterprise, each is responsible for the acts of the other or others in carrying out that enterprise. The Crown must establish both the existence of that joint criminal enterprise and the participation in it by the accused.

(2) A joint criminal enterprise exists where two or more persons reach an understanding or arrangement amounting to an agreement between them that they will commit a crime. The understanding or arrangement need not be express, and its existence may be inferred from all the circumstances. It need not have been reached at any time before the crime is committed. The circumstances in which two or more persons are participating together in the commission of a particular crime may themselves establish an unspoken understanding or arrangement amounting to an agreement formed between them then and there to commit that crime.

(3) A person participates in that joint criminal enterprise either by committing the agreed crime itself or simply by being present at the time when the crime is committed, and (with knowledge that the crime is to be or is being committed) by intentionally assisting or encouraging another participant in the joint criminal enterprise to commit that crime. The presence of that person at the time when the crime is committed and a readiness to give aid if required is sufficient to amount to an encouragement to the other participant in the joint criminal enterprise to commit the crime.

(4) If the agreed crime is committed by one or other of the participants in that joint criminal enterprise, all of the participants in that enterprise are equally guilty of the crime regardless of the part played by each in its commission” (at 556 – 557).

Common Purpose / Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise

Each of the parties to an arrangement or understanding to commit a criminal offence is guilty of another crime falling within the scope of the common purpose which is committed in carrying out that purpose, the common purpose being determined by what is within the contemplation of the persons sharing that common purpose. 

The law in relation to complicity is very complicated and it is important that you get expert legal advice if you are dealing with a matter involving these concepts. 

If you require legal advice or representation in any legal matter, please contact Armstrong Legal lawyers.