Stealing a lost property
I lost my mobile phone on my way home from a bar. My phone has my picture on the screen. One of my neighbour’s who knows me very well and is able to identify me from my picture on the phone found my phone but instead of bringing the phone to me, he sold it to another person. Can this neighbour who found the phone and sold it to another person be prosecuted for stealing?
GG, Morogoro
Under section 258(5) of the Penal Code [Cap. 16. R.E. 2019] if a person finds a lost property and he/she knows the owner and believes that the owner can be found but instead of giving the lost property to the owner, he/she converts it into his personal use or sells it to another person, that person is deemed to have stolen the property by fraudulent conversion. There are two ways of stealing a property, one is by fraudulent taking the property of another and the other way is by fraudulent conversion of a property lost whose owner the finder knows and believes to be reachable or fraudulently converting the property entrusted to him for safe keeping or transmission to another person.