A student is in a romantic relationship with a lecturer. The faculty staffroom is available for lecturers from 9 am until 7 pm. One evening after hours, the student and the lecturer go to the staffroom to have some privacy. The lecturer uses his key card to let them in. While the lecturer is using the restroom, the student finds a copy of an exam paper she will be sitting for the following week. She quickly takes a photo of the exam paper and puts it back where she found it. When the lecturer returns, they find a bottle of wine in the staff fridge that belongs to the lecturer's colleague. They drink the wine together.
Whether the student and the lecturer have committed a burglary?
A student is in a romantic relationship with a lecturer. The faculty staffroom is available for lecturers from 9 am until 7 pm. One evening after hours, the student and the lecturer go to the staffroom to have some privacy. The lecturer uses his key card to let them in. While the lecturer is using the restroom, the student finds a copy of an exam paper she will be sitting for the following week. She quickly takes a photo of the exam paper and puts it back where she found it. When the lecturer returns, they find a bottle of wine in the staff fridge that belongs to the lecturer's colleague. They drink the wine together.
Whether the student and the lecturer have committed a burglary?
Both the student and the lecturer did, as they entered as trespassers, knowing or being reckless as to whether they were trespassing, and then went on to commit theft.
(D) The student and the lecturer would be considered guilty of burglary in this scenario. Although they did not have the intention of committing any further criminal activity when they entered the staffroom, they still meet the criteria for burglary as outlined in the s9(1)(b) Theft Act 1968. They entered the staffroom as trespassers, aware that they were not permitted to be there, and once inside they committed theft by taking the wine that belonged to a colleague.
Option (A) is incorrect, as burglary is still valid even if the underlying offence was not initially intended.
Options (B) and (E) are also incorrect as the lecturer is trespassing by entering the staffroom outside of permitted hours.
Option (C) is incorrect as taking a picture of an exam paper does not qualify as theft since information does not constitute property.