(2) If the requirements specified in subsection (1) are satisfied, a person shall be entitled to a complete
defence to a charge even if he or she realised that the order concerned was illegal.
PART XIX
T RIVIALITIES
270 Person charged with trivial crime entitled to acquittal
(1) Subject to this section, a person charged with a crime shall be entitled to be acquitted of the charge if the
conduct constituting the crime is of a trivial nature.
(2) In deciding whether a crime is of a sufficiently trivial nature to justify the acquittal of the person charged
in terms of subsection (1), a court shall take into account the following factors in addition to any others that are
relevant to the particular case
(a) the extent of any harm done by the commission of the crime to any person or to the community as a
whole; and
(b) the extent to which it appears, from the enactment which created the crime, that the lawmaker wished to
prohibit conduct such as that perpetrated by the accused; and
(c) whether or not an acquittal will encourage other persons to commit the crime concerned.
(3) Where a crime is by its nature trivial, that is, where the conduct prohibited by the enactment concerned
does little harm either to individual persons or to the community as a whole, a court shall not acquit a person
charged with such a crime in terms of this section unless the conduct of the person charged is of a trivial nature in
relation to the most serious conduct prohibited by the particular provision of the enactment concerned.
PART XX
UNAVOIDABLE ACCIDENT
271 Interpretation in Part XX of Chapter XIV
In this Part
“unavoidable accident” means a circumstance or event such as
(a) a heart attack or epileptic blackout suffered whilst driving a motor vehicle by a person who has
not previously suffered from one and who has no reason to suppose that he or she might do so;
(b) a swarm of bees flying into a moving motor vehicle and stinging the driver;
(c) a stone thrown up by a passing vehicle and striking and stunning the driver of a moving motor
vehicle;
the occurrence of which is so unlikely that a reasonable person, if in the position of the person whose
conduct is under consideration, would not take steps to guard against it.
272 Requirements for unavoidable accident to be complete defence
Subject to this section, the fact that a person charged with a crime did or omitted to do anything that is an
essential element of the crime as a result of an unavoidable accident shall be a complete defence to the charge if
(a) the unavoidable accident did not occur through his or her own fault; and
(b) a reasonable person, faced with the same unavoidable accident in the same circumstances, would not
have been able to avoid the same conduct as would have constituted the crime.
CHAPTER XV
P ERMISSIBLE V ERDICTS
273 Persons charged with crime may be found guilty of unfinalised crime or assisting
perpetrator of crime
A person charged with any crime may be found guilty of
(a) threatening, incitement, conspiracy or attempting to commit that crime or any other crime of which the
person might be convicted on the charge; or
(b) assisting a perpetrator of that crime or of any other crime of which the person might be convicted on the
charge;
if such are the facts proved.
274 Conviction for crime other than that charged
Where a person is charged with a crime the essential elements of which include the essential elements of
some other crime, he or she may be found guilty of such other crime, if such are the facts proved and if it is not
proved that he or she committed the crime charged.
275 Verdicts permissible on particular charges
Without limiting section two hundred and seventy-three or two hundred and seventy-four, a person charged
with
Select target paragraph3
Add to table of contents