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Criminal Procedure Act 2011

General provisions - Conduct of proceeding - Proceedings conducted together

137: Proceedings against parties to offences, accessories, and receivers

You could also call this:

"What happens if you're involved in a crime, but didn't actually do it?"

Illustration for Criminal Procedure Act 2011

If you are charged with a crime, but you did not actually commit it, this section applies to you. You can be charged as a party to an offence, or with being an accessory after the fact, or with receiving stolen property. You can be found guilty of the crime even if the person who actually committed it has not been charged or found guilty. You can be tried alone for the crime, or with the person who actually committed it, and you can be found guilty either way. If property has been stolen, more than one person who received that property can be charged and tried together, even if they received it at different times.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3360227.

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Part 5General provisions
Conduct of proceeding: Proceedings conducted together

137Proceedings against parties to offences, accessories, and receivers

  1. This section applies to every person charged—

  2. as a party to an offence (not being the person who actually committed it); or
    1. with being an accessory after the fact to any offence; or
      1. with receiving property knowing it to have been stolen or dishonestly obtained.

        1. Every person to whom subsection (1) applies may be proceeded against and convicted for the offence whether or not the principal offender or any other party to the offence or the person by whom the property was obtained has been proceeded against or convicted.

        2. Every person to whom subsection (1) applies may be proceeded against and convicted—

        3. alone as for a substantive offence; or
          1. jointly with the principal or other offender or person by whom the property was stolen or dishonestly obtained.

            1. If any property has been stolen or dishonestly obtained, any number of receivers at different times of that property, or of any part or parts of it, may be charged with substantive offences, and may be tried together.

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