“Impossibility was a defence to conspiracy charges - later legislative changes”
Nock and others agreed to produce cocaine from a powder, believing it contained cocaine. Scientific evidence showed the powder could not produce cocaine by any known method. They were convicted of conspiracy to produce a controlled drug.
Whether defendants could be convicted of conspiracy to produce a controlled drug when it was scientifically impossible to produce the drug from the available materials.
The House of Lords quashed the convictions. Where the conspiracy was impossible to carry out, no criminal conspiracy existed.
This case was significant in the development of inchoate offence law, particularly regarding impossibility. It led to legislative changes in the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and influenced the approach taken in later cases like Shivpuri. It remains important for understanding the relationship between conspiracy and impossibility.
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OSCOLA Citation
DPP v Nock [1978] AC 979 (HL)
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