Legal Literacy - We often hear about criminal act receiving stolen goods. Have you ever wondered about the formulation of the article in the Criminal Code? Is every purchase of stolen goods (that we are unaware of) always considered receiving stolen goods? Let's take a look at the explanation in the following article!
Definition of the Crime of Receiving Stolen Goods
Receiving stolen goods is a crime involving property, which means an attack on other people's interests in property or assets they own. The terminology of criminal law explains that receiving stolen goods is an act of intentionally seeking profit from goods originating from a crime, by buying, selling, renting, receiving a pledge, pawning, or storing the goods.
Receiving stolen goods can occur due to the perpetrator's desire to obtain profits from the proceeds of crime because goods obtained from crime are much cheaper than normal market prices. The phenomenon of receiving stolen goods crime is allegedly related to economic factors related to daily increasing needs, increasingly expensive basic necessities, a lack of available jobs in society, competition, and other conflicts of interest.
Formulation of the Crime of Receiving Stolen Goods
Based on the form and severity of the receiving stolen goods, the crime of receiving stolen goods is divided into 3 (three) types: ordinary receiving stolen goods, habitual receiving stolen goods, and petty receiving stolen goods.
Ordinary Receiving of Stolen Goods or Receiving of Stolen Goods in Basic Form
The crime of ordinary receiving stolen goods is regulated in Article 480 of Law Number 1 of 1946 concerning Criminal Law Regulations (KUHP) punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 4 (four) years or a maximum fine of Rp. 900.00 (nine hundred rupiah), namely “anyone who buys, rents, receives in exchange, receives as collateral, receives as a gift, or intends to receive profit, sells, exchanges, pawns, carries, stores or hides an item that he knows or should suspect was obtained through a crime.” In addition, receiving stolen goods also means that if it is known or should be suspected that the goods were obtained from a crime, the perpetrator takes profit from the proceeds of an item.
In the new Criminal Code Article 591 of Law Number 1 of 2023, the crime of ordinary receiving stolen goods is punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 4 (four) years or a maximum fine of category V of Rp. 500,000,000.00 (five hundred million rupiah).
Ordinary receiving stolen goods is a combination of intentional offense and negligence offense which is marked by the words “should be able to know” that the goods come from a crime. This is called the offense of pro parte doleus pro parte culpa or half intentional and half negligence.
Receiving Stolen Goods as a Habit
Criminal act receiving stolen goods which is committed as a habit or has been committed more than once or even repeatedly, or is also referred to as gewoonteheling is regulated in Article 481 of the Criminal Code with a maximum imprisonment of 7 (seven) years and revocation of rights contained in Article 35 Number 1-4 if the receiving of stolen goods is carried out as a livelihood.
In the new Criminal Code, it is regulated in Article 592 of Law Number 1 of 2023 with a maximum imprisonment of 6 (six) years or a maximum fine of category V and revocation of rights if the receiving of stolen goods is carried out as a livelihood. The revocation of rights in question includes: The right to hold public office in general or a specific position, the right to become a member of the TNI and Polri, the right to vote and be elected in elections held in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations, and/or the right to obtain parole.
Petty Receiving of Stolen Goods
Article 482 of the Criminal Code is the legal basis for the crime of petty receiving of stolen goods caused by the following crimes: Petty theft (Article 346 of the Criminal Code), Petty embezzlement (Article 373 of the Criminal Code), Petty fraud (Article 379 of the Criminal Code). The criminal provisions regulated in Article 482 of the Criminal Code state that the perpetrator intends or has the intention to commit the act of buying, renting, exchanging, pawning, or receiving as a gift or grant. The perpetrator also intends to gain profits such as selling, renting, exchanging, transporting, and concealing goods resulting from minor crimes. The penalty is a maximum imprisonment of three months or a maximum fine of Rp. 900.00 (nine hundred rupiah).
In the new Criminal Code, petty receiving of stolen goods is regulated in Article 593 of Law Number 1 of 2023, namely a criminal act where the value of the goods is no more than Rp. 500,000.00 (five hundred thousand rupiah), punishable by a maximum fine of category II or Rp. 10,000,000.00 (ten million rupiah).
The Crime of Receiving Stolen Goods is Included as a Formal Offense
In terms of its formulation, the provisions of offenses in the Criminal Code are divided into two, namely formal offenses and material offenses. A formal offense is an act that is prohibited and threatened with punishment and is considered complete or fulfilled if the act is committed without mentioning the consequences caused by the act. A material offense is an act that causes a certain consequence, without formulating the form of the act.
The crime of receiving a stolen motorcycle is a formal offense, meaning that the crime of receiving a stolen motorcycle is sufficient if the elements of the act being formulated are fulfilled, not by the occurrence of consequences from the act. In other words, the offense or act is considered complete or finished if the act is committed by the perpetrator without further looking at the consequences arising from the act or without correlating it with the consequences of the act.
Receiving Stolen Motor Vehicles
Motor vehicle theft is increasingly prevalent in major cities with various modus operandi carried out by perpetrators of motor vehicle theft. Perpetrators carry out their evil acts by storing, hiding, selling, transporting goods originating from crimes in the form of stolen goods and generating profits, which is also called heling.
Case example: A steals a motorcycle without a license plate and vehicle ownership documents, then A pawns the motorcycle to B at a price much lower than the usual pawn price. In this case, B should reasonably suspect or know that the origin of the goods, such as the motorcycle, comes from a crime because the motorcycle is not equipped with valid documents such as the Vehicle Registration Certificate (STNK) and Proof of Motor Vehicle Ownership (BPKB).
In this case, "intent to gain profit" is an element of the offense of receiving stolen goods because B gains profit by making cheaper pawn payments. B should not need to know for sure what crime the goods came from, but B should reasonably suspect that the goods are not legal goods.
References
- Hamzah, Andi. Certain Offenses (Special Delicten) in the Criminal Code. Jakarta: Sinar Grafika, 2014.
- Hamzah, Andi. Criminal Law Terminology. Jakarta: Sinar Grafika, 2013.
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