## Facts

- Hands used a coin-operated cigarette machine (“automatic box”) designed to dispense a cigarette when a penny was inserted and a knob was pushed as directed.
- Instead of inserting a genuine penny, Hands inserted a metal “slug” intended to represent a penny.
- The slug had no value and was used to obtain a cigarette without paying.
- The machine dispensed a cigarette in response to the slug, and Hands took and carried away the cigarette as though it had been purchased.
- Hands was indicted and tried for larceny of the cigarette.
- Hands was convicted at trial.
- The case reached the Court for Crown Cases Reserved on a reserved question of law concerning whether the facts amounted to larceny.

## Issues

1. Whether obtaining goods from an automatic vending machine by inserting a valueless slug in place of lawful coin, and then taking the dispensed goods, constitutes common-law larceny.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the conviction.
- The court held that Hands’s conduct amounted to larceny of the cigarette.
- The court treated the cigarette as remaining the property of the machine’s owner because the machine’s condition for transfer (payment with lawful coin) was not satisfied.
- Hands’s removal of the dispensed cigarette constituted a taking and carrying away with intent to steal.

## Legal Principles

- Larceny is established where a defendant, intending to steal, takes and carries away another’s personal property without lawful consent, even if the property is made accessible through a mechanical device.
- A valueless slug used to imitate payment does not constitute payment; when the device is designed to transfer goods only upon receipt of lawful coin, title and superior possessory rights remain with the owner absent such payment.
- An automatic vending machine is treated as an instrument of its owner; the machine’s mechanical delivery does not by itself supply legally effective consent to transfer ownership when the device is triggered by fraud.
- Fraudulent manipulation of an automatic device can support a trespassory taking of the goods dispensed, satisfying the act element of larceny when followed by physical removal.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a larceny conviction where the defendant used a worthless slug to operate a cigarette vending machine and then took the dispensed cigarette, reasoning that the machine’s mechanical delivery did not effect a valid transfer because the condition of lawful payment was not met and the defendant acted with intent to steal.


Regina v. Hands, 16 Cox C.C. 188, 56 L.T. 370 (Ct. Crim. App. 1887)