Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] 3 WLR 1212 Supreme court
This was a civil case in which a professional gambler sought to claim winnings of £7.7 Million which the defendant casino refused to pay. The defendant accused the claimant of cheating. The Court of Appeal held that in order to establish cheating for the purposes of of s.42 Gambling Act 2005, the Ghosh test of dishonesty would be applicable. The Supreme court held that dishonesty must be established but it modified the Ghosh test and despite the fact that this was a civil case, Lord Hughes stated that this test of dishonesty should be applied in criminal cases.
The new test for dishonesty:
Lord Hughes:
"When dishonesty is in question the fact-finding tribunal must first ascertain (subjectively) the actual state of the individual’s knowledge or belief as to the facts. The reasonableness or otherwise of his belief is a matter of evidence (often in practice determinative) going to whether he held the belief, but it is not an additional requirement that his belief must be reasonable; the question is whether it is genuinely held. When once his actual state of mind as to knowledge or belief as to facts is established, the question whether his conduct was honest or dishonest is to be determined by the fact-finder by applying the (objective) standards of ordinary decent people. There is no requirement that the defendant must appreciate that what he has done is, by those standards, dishonest"
Back to lecture outline on theft