Article 240 of the Criminal Code

What Article 240 of the Criminal Code punishes

Article 240 defines the basic form of robbery through force applied to property: taking another person's movable property with intent to profit by using one of the means of force listed in Article 238 (scaling, breaking through a wall, roof or door, forcing cabinets or safes, using false keys, disabling alarm systems, and so on). It differs from theft in requiring that extra element of force against the property, and from robbery with violence or intimidation in that here the force is applied to objects, not to people.

The provision sets two penalty brackets: the basic one in paragraph 1, and an aggravated bracket in paragraph 2 that refers, not to the offence being committed in an inhabited house or premises open to the public, but to the circumstances of Article 235 (the same ones that aggravate theft): taking property of artistic or cultural value, essential goods causing a shortage, essential infrastructure, agricultural or livestock property, particularly serious economic harm, abusing a situation of helplessness, qualified recidivism, using minors under sixteen, acting within a criminal organisation, or targeting mobile phones and data-storage devices.

Penalty

Basic robbery through force carries one to three years' imprisonment. Where any of the Article 235 circumstances is present, the penalty rises to two to five years' imprisonment. The rule in Article 235.2 — upper half where two or more circumstances concur — refers to the theft penalty in its preceding paragraph; Article 240.2 does not repeat it.

The inhabited-house aggravation: a separate article

This aggravation under Article 240 should not be confused with Article 241, which is a stand-alone provision: robbery through force committed in an inhabited house, building or premises open to the public (or their outbuildings) carries two to five years' imprisonment, rising to one to five years if the premises are entered outside opening hours, and to two to six years where the act is also of particular gravity or an Article 235 circumstance is present. These are two distinct aggravations of the same underlying offence, and only the Article 241 one requires entry into a home or premises.

Defence strategy

Defending against a charge under Article 240 starts by checking whether one of the Article 238 means of force was genuinely present — a simple taking without breaking or scaling is theft, not robbery — and then by examining whether the aggravating circumstance alleged under Article 235 is properly established rather than applied automatically. The economic valuation of the property taken, expert evidence on the damage caused to gain access, and whether the offence was only attempted rather than completed can all substantially change the classification and the final penalty.