does not require that the Defendant actually took the Money and used it to
buy something or otherwise spent it. Courts have held it enough that to
transfer the Money to a Bank Account or even to refuse or fail to hand over
the owner's Money when the owner demands it amounts to Conversion.
The element of knowledge is found when the Defendant engages in the
conduct and he is aware to a high probability that he is doing so. An
essential element of Criminal Conversion is that “the Property must be
owned by another and the conversion thereof must be without the consent
and against the will of the Party, to whom the Property belongs, coupled
with the fraudulent intent to deprive the owner of the Property. See the case
of PEOPLE VS FIELDEN, 162 COLORADO 574, 576 (COLORADO 196).
Knowledge coupled with the intentional exertion and Criminal Intent of
unauthorized control, forms the crux of the Crime of Conversion. Exerting
Control over the Property means, “to Obtain, Take, Carry, Drive, Lead Away,
Conceal, Abandon, Sell, Convey, Encumber or Possess Property, or to Secure,
Transfer, or Extend a Right over the Property. See the case of the case of
IRVIN VS STATE, 501 N.E.2D 1139, 1141 (INDIANA CT. APP. 1986).
The Defendant must have converted the Property to his Own Use or for
purposes other than those for which it was entrusted. It is clear that
Conversion may not ordinarily be a matter of direct proof, but when it is
established that the Property, is entrusted to him or that he had dominion
over it and rendered false explanations for his failure to account for it, then
an inference of conversion may readily be made. A whole series of
contemporaneous facts and surrounding circumstances of an event must be
considered together in the circumstances of the case, in order to fix the
Defendant irresistibly to the Commission of the Offence of Criminal Breach
of Trust. See the cases of LORTIM VS THE STATE (1997) 2 NWLR PART
490, PAGE 711 AT 725 PARAS C-D; AND MAGDALENE ONOGWU VS THE
STATE (1995) 6 NWLR PT 401 PAGE 276.
His Lordship ADEKEYE JCA, (AS SHE THEN WAS, NOW JSC RTD) in
PATRICK OKOROJI VS THE STATE (2002) 1 NCC PAGE 279 AT PAGE 297,
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