Marketing knives for sale (R v STC Ltd)

Article summary

Corporate Crime analysis: R v STC Ltd is the first known appeal concerning interpretation of sections 1 and 2 of the Knives Act 1997 (KA 1997), and a potentially highly important decision for enforcement authorities and the sellers of knives. This was an interlocutory appeal against a ruling made at a Preparatory Hearing about the scope and import of KA 1997, s 1, which makes it an offence to market a knife in a manner which suggests it is ‘suitable for combat’, or is ‘otherwise likely to stimulate or encourage violent behaviour involving the use of the knife as a weapon’. The Court of Appeal Criminal Division (CACD) held that the judge at first instance was correct to find that the marketing material in question was capable of making out the offences, and that both photographs of the knives and their names formed part of that material. Written by Richard Heller, barrister at Drystone Chambers, who appeared on behalf of the respondent, Trading...