Not bound to help - Looters can't be prosecuted for not helping crash victims

Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer

It may be deemed 'heartless' for someone helping themselves to the contents of a crashed vehicle while its occupants suffer, but they cannot be prosecuted for not assisting those who have been hurt.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds indicated that in a case of looting, a person who refuses to help a wounded individual cannot face criminal sanctions. Those would apply only if the person died at the hands of the looter.

"If the would-be looter refuses to help that person, that individual would be seen as a callous and cold citizen. In fact, as a citizen, it wouldn't be expected or it wouldn't be an obligation for the person to help an individual in that case of distress," he said.

Criminal sanctions

Hinds explained that persons who loot goods from motor vehicle crashes are liable to face criminal sanctions and could be charged under the Larceny Act. However, it depends on the circumstances.

An attorney from the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic Ltd explained that if a company vehicle carrying goods was involved in a motor vehicle crash and looted, the amount of goods stolen would determine whether it would be simple larceny or just larceny.

"It depends on the amount of goods stolen. If it's a sizeable amount then that charge wouldn't be simple. It would be considered larceny," she said.

Section five of the Larceny Act speaks to simple larceny and offenders can be imprisoned for up to five years.

Although Hinds could not readily recall incidents of which the police had charged anyone in relation to larceny from motor vehicles, there have been prominent incidents.

In March 2010, several men and children were seen looting Heineken beer from an overturned truck. The accident took place along the Linstead bypass in St Catherine and involved a Toyota motor vehicle and a truck transporting the beer.

Last year, scores of persons descended upon Flat Bridge and removed chicken and other meat kind from a truck which had plunged into the Rio Cobre. And recently, looters made off with bottles of cooking oil from a truck which had been involved in a collision with another truck on the Mandela Highway in St Catherine.