An unscrupulous woman battened on to a somewhat simple-minded, wealthy man, and cajoled him into parting with large amounts of his recently acquired wealth. The gifts that he made to her were, it seems, perfectly valid ones. It is astonishing then to find that she was, according to the Court of Appeal in Hinks [1998] Crim.L.R. 904, properly convicted of theft. How did this apparently absurd result come about?