Criminal Law and Offences Relevant to Security Duties
This domain tests the elements of offences a guard actually meets on post. Accurate elements produce accurate reports and credible testimony; mislabelling an offence can turn a lawful apprehension into an unlawful detention.
Core rules
- Theft (RPC 308): taking personal property with intent to gain, without violence or intimidation and without consent. Robbery (RPC 293–294) adds violence, intimidation or force upon things.
- Trespass (RPC 280): entering another's dwelling or closed premises against the express or implied will of the owner.
- Physical injuries: slight, less serious and serious are distinguished by injury and incapacity; document visible injuries and obtain a medical certificate.
- Justifying circumstances: self-defence and defence of a stranger require unlawful aggression, reasonable necessity of the means used, and lack of sufficient provocation from the defender. Fulfilment of duty and lawful order also justify.
- Stages: attempted, frustrated, consummated. Intent and completion change how the report is framed and what the prosecutor can use.
Worked example
You see a man run from a store carrying a boxed appliance while the cashier shouts 'hold-up'. He pushes past you. Because the taking was without violence and the push came during escape, the offence is theft, not robbery; the push may be a separate slight physical injury. You may make a citizen's arrest for the freshly committed theft and use only the force needed to stop him.
Traps
Calling every taking 'robbery'; describing yourself as a 'person in authority' in a direct-assault charge; inferring intent to gain from possession alone; writing conclusions ('he was drunk') instead of observed facts.