This case has been cited 2 times or more.
|
2012-11-28 |
PERALTA, J. |
||||
| Moreover, the case of Santos v. People[10] is worthy of note. Similarly in Santos, the owner of a car entrusted his vehicle to therein petitioner Lauro Santos who owns a repair shop for carburetor repair and repainting. However, when the owner tried to retrieve her car, she was not able to do so since Santos had abandoned his shop. In the said case, the crime that was actually committed was Qualified Theft. However, the Court held that because of the fact that it was not alleged in the information that the object of the crime was a car, which is a qualifying circumstance, the Court found that Santos was only guilty of the crime of Theft and merely considered the qualifying circumstance as an aggravating circumstance in the imposition of the appropriate penalty. The Court therein clarified the distinction between the crime of Estafa and Theft, to wit: x x x The principal distinction between the two crimes is that in theft the thing is taken while in estafa the accused receives the property and converts it to his own use or benefit. However, there may be theft even if the accused has possession of the property. If he was entrusted only with the material or physical (natural) or de facto possession of the thing, his misappropriation of the same constitutes theft, but if he has the juridical possession of the thing, his conversion of the same constitutes embezzlement or estafa.[11] | |||||
|
2009-07-13 |
CARPIO MORALES, J. |
||||
| x x x The principal distinction between the two crimes is that in theft the thing is taken while in estafa the accused receives the property and converts it to his own use or benefit. However, there may be theft even if the accused has possession of the property. If he was entrusted only with the material or physical (natural) or de facto possession of the thing, his misappropriation of the same constitutes theft, but if he has the juridical possession of the thing, his conversion of the same constitutes embezzlement or estafa.[20] (Underscoring supplied) | |||||