Article 357: Receiving stolen property

Firm annotation

Section 357 defines receiving stolen property. Its elements are: the accused assisted in concealing, disposing of, or carrying away, or bought, took in pledge, or otherwise received property, that property was obtained through a predicate offence, and the predicate offence is one of the listed property offences (theft, snatching, extortion, blackmail, robbery, gang-robbery, cheating and fraud, misappropriation, or official misappropriation). Crucially, the offender must know the property came from one of those offences; innocent acquisition is not caught. It is a distinct offence from the underlying theft or fraud, and a person cannot be both the principal thief and the receiver of the very same property. The section has three penalty tiers, not one. The base tier is imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand baht, or both. Where the receiving is done for the purpose of trading for profit, or concerns property obtained by theft under Section 335(10), by robbery or by gang-robbery, the tier is six months to ten years with a fine of ten thousand to two hundred thousand baht. Where it concerns property obtained by theft under Section 335 bis, robbery under Section 339 bis or gang-robbery under Section 340 bis, the tier is five to fifteen years with a fine of one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand baht. So the real maximum is fifteen years, and the professional receiver is the target of the heavier tiers.