1947 Present : Howard C.J.

DE ALWIS, Appellant, and SELVARATNAM, Inspector
Of police Respondent

454- M. C , Colombo, 48,955

Cheating - Ingredients which should be proved - Penal Code, ss e33400.

The appellant was charged under section 400 of the Penal Code with cheating a Proctor and Notary by falsely representing to him that certain premises described in the schedule to a mortgage bond attested by him were free from all encumbrances when, in fact, the said premises were subject to a mortgage.

There was no proof that damage or harm was caused to the Proctor in body, mind, reputation, or property.

Held, that to constitute the offence of cheating under section 400 of the Penal Code the damage of harm caused or likely to be caused to the person deceived must be the necessary consequence of the act done by reason of the deceit practiced or must be necessarily likely to follow there from. The possibilities of damage or harm to mind or reputation were too remote to be in the contemplation of the enactment.

APPEAL against a conviction from the Magistrate's Court , Colombo.

L. A Rajapakse, K.C. (with him E. D. Cosme and E. O. F . De Silv