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Is talking about committing a crime an offense?

On Behalf of | Oct 18, 2024 | Criminal Defense

People have ideas all of the time. Some of these are far more sensible than others. If any of your less sensible ideas have something to do with a plan to commit a criminal act, then you may be wondering if you did anything wrong. Could the police arrest you just for just talking about committing a crime?

Merely talking about doing something is not enough to warrant a criminal charge. However, you also don’t need to commit the crime to face charges over it. Conspiracy is a crime on its own

Did you do anything to move the plan forward?

Conspiracy to commit a crime is a criminal offense. However, for it to apply to your discussion, certain things must apply. Notably, you (or one of the people you were discussing it with) must have taken some further action to move forward with that crime. Just sitting there in your lounge with friends discussing robbing a bank as a solution to pay all your student debts is not a criminal act. If one of you went out the next day and bought a set of ski masks or a gun, then a court may see that as proof that a step was taken to put your plans into action.

You need to have known it was illegal

 

Let’s say you and your friends were talking about a way of making money that you’d seen on the internet. You don’t quite understand how it works, but neither do you realize that what you are talking about doing is committing fraud. If you can show a court that you did not know what you were planning to do was illegal then conspiracy charges should not apply, even if you did take further steps.

If you find yourself accused of conspiracy, seeking urgent legal guidance can help you work out what to do next.