4 replies to this topic

[Rhizoctonia]

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/01/28/dad-found-not-guilty-of-theft-for-confiscating-daughters-phone-over-text

 

Unreal, guy gets arrested for theft because he takes his daughters phone.  Parents are split up, Mother bought the kids phone but the phone is on her dads phone plan.  

[Lysistrata]

Stupid. Reminds me of that case where the bratty kid sued her parents for refusing to pay her college tuition.

[Samus]

Canada hold this L.

[onbekende]

Samus, read the text better

[Icewolf]

Some very stupid things can happen during breakups of marriage. Calling the police over a missing phone is a relatively minor thing to do compared to some things I saw whilst interning with family lawyers. Lets just say that burying the kid's toys in a mock graveyard in the back garden falls into the "less disturbing" category. 

 

However, in this case there could be a potential theft charge (without knowing all the facts). If one parent buys the child a phone, then the other parent confiscates it, that can clearly be regarded as theft, and in some cases can go beyond parenting. I can definitely imagine a case of one parent taking the phone off the child because they don't like the fact the other parent can afford a nicer phone than they could buy the child, and refusing to give it back on that basis. In which case the parent may well have just taken several hundred dollars worth of property that they have absolutely no right to. 

 

Now the facts of this case are clearly fairly murky, although it does seem the Father has continued to refuse to hand back the phone. Which means he is hanging on to several hundred dollars of property he has no legal right to. However, to make it clear, parents in a messy divorce often do not put the needs of their child ahead of their own need to get one up on the other side.