Mistake of Facts or Mistake of Law
Criminal Code 1899 (Qld) s 24
Mistake of Fact
It was not easy for me to create an example to understand “mistake of fact” –
A person get on a train and sit next to another person who has a blue coloured umbrella. When the first person leaves the train, he took the umbrella of the other person. It will be a mistake of fact if
1. The first person thought it was his umbrella, AND
2. He actually owns an umbrella which is blue colour
So, what I understand is, in layman’s terms, to use s.24 as defence for stealing, one must need to prove that it was honest and reasonable, and to show that, one might have to prove that they actually owned a similar umbrella.