Theft

Theft is one of the most common offences in Hungarian criminal law. Theft is committed when a person takes a movable object belonging to another with the intention of unlawfully appropriating it.

The act has two elements that together amount to a change in possession:
 (1) the perpetrator eliminates the owner’s or possessor’s power of disposal over the thing; and
 (2) establishes his or her own power of disposal over it.
 Only when both elements are present is theft (the taking) completed.
Accordingly, removal from the premises is not required for completion. If, in a dormitory room, the perpetrator takes the roommate’s cash and hides it in a place only the perpetrator knows, theft is already complete: possession has changed even though the money was not carried away, because the hiding place excludes the original possessor’s ability to recover it.
In practice, removal often occurs and, in some situations (e.g., a passenger car), it may be the only way to bring about the change in possession. Conversely, mere removal does not automatically complete theft unless it excludes the owner’s realistic chance of recovery.
If the would-be thief places tools intended for misappropriation inside the factory premises (e.g., by the fence), theft is not yet complete: the items remain findable and the owner can still regain control.

The object of theft is a movable, foreign (belonging to another) thing that has value. If any of these three conditions is missing, the taking may constitute a different offence (for example, misuse of a document) rather than theft.
A “thing” includes any tangible object capable of physical control—cars, furniture, food, electronic goods, cash. Statute extends the concept to include electricity and other economically exploitable energy, and certain documents or dematerialised securities that, by themselves, confer control over a right or value.
Although electricity or water cannot be “possessed” in a physical sense, a person who tampers with a meter or taps into a supply to obtain them without payment commits theft.
A corpse cannot be the object of theft; however, human organs removed for transplantation (e.g., heart, kidney) can. Immovables (real property) cannot be stolen, but severable parts of them (brick, tile, doors, windows, guttering, switches, wiring, tiles, bathtub) can be the object of theft.

Whether taking a document amounts to theft depends on whether possession of the document alone enables control over the value or right it embodies. If it does, its taking is theft.
Thus, taking a bearer security formerly in circulation, or a cloakroom ticket, is theft because no further action is needed to realise the value or retrieve the property. By contrast, taking a registered (name-specific) security is not theft on this basis; where a document does not embody a property right, taking it is typically misuse of a document, not theft.

The thing must not belong—even in part—to the perpetrator. It must be owned by someone else (a natural or legal person). In co-ownership, each co-owner’s right extends to the entire thing.
Thus, property acquired into community property during marriage belongs to both spouses while the marriage exists; deterioration of the relationship does not change that. Taking jointly owned furniture or electronics is not theft—nor is retrieving them—though either spouse’s separate property may be the object of theft.
Criminal law protects the existing possession, regardless of how the possessor acquired it. One can commit theft from a thief.

A thing cannot be ownerless in the legal sense unless truly abandoned. Taking abandoned items (e.g., refuse placed for disposal) generally does not constitute an offence. However, if the thing’s nature, value, or location indicates it was lost by mistake rather than abandoned, taking it constitutes theft.
If a person finds a thick gold chain in a bin outside a house and takes it, that is theft: until the owner’s realistic chance to recover the item has vanished, it is not ownerless (the owner might notice the loss and check the bin).
Items found in places open to the public (offices, public authorities, restaurants, schools, vehicles of public transport operators, etc.) are typically received into the custody of the operator under responsible safekeeping rules; the owner must seek recovery there.
A fallen game animal, its trophy, or a stray animal is not ownerless. Taking such property—or capturing the stray animal—constitutes theft.

The object of theft must have value. The relevant value is the retail price at the time of the offence. If the thing has negligible or no ascertainable value, the conduct may amount to an administrative (petty) offence rather than theft as a crime.
For used items, the degree of wear affects value. For items not available at retail, the value should be inferred from a comparable item similar in construction, materials, function, usability, and efficiency.
In electricity-theft cases, utilities may invoice surcharges, but those cannot be used as the basis of criminal value calculation (to avoid double counting). The value is the ordinary tariff for the quantity taken at the time of the offence.

The value of the stolen property often determines the applicable penalty range for theft. Unless a value-independent aggravation applies (see below), the main brackets are:

1. HUF 50,000 or less → petty offence (not a crime).
2. HUF 50,001 – 500,000 → “minor value” (up to 2 years’ imprisonment, community service, or a fine).
3. HUF 500,001 – 5,000,000 → “greater value” (up to 3 years’ imprisonment).
4. HUF 5,000,001 – 50,000,000 → “significant value” (1–5 years’ imprisonment).
5. HUF 50,000,001 – 500,000,000 → “particularly large value” (2–8 years’ imprisonment).
6. Above HUF 500,000,000 → “particularly significant value” (5–10 years’ imprisonment).

Beyond value, certain circumstances aggravate theft.
Some aggravations apply regardless of value and move the offence up one bracket (e.g., acting in criminal association, committing theft on a commercial scale, force against property, pickpocketing, or simultaneous taking of a public or private document or a non-cash payment instrument). Other aggravations elevate petty-offence-level takings to a crime (e.g., entering a room or its fenced appurtenance by deception or without the user’s knowledge/consent; using a false or stolen key; committing theft against a co-occupant; unlawful felling in a forest).

Theft committed in criminal association

There is an agreement between at least two persons to commit one or more offences in an organised manner (but not rising to the level of a criminal organisation), and at least one offence is attempted. The agreement may cover a series of thefts or other property crimes.

Theft committed on a commercial scale

The offence is committed with the aim of regular profit-making through the commission of similar or identical offences. It suffices that the perpetrator regularly commits thefts (of any value), or similar property offences (e.g., fraud, embezzlement, robbery, IP-related infringements) to generate income or supplement other income. The law requires that the crimes be of the same or similar nature.

Theft with force against property

Two core features:
 (1) a physical barrier protects the item (door, window, safe, wall); and
 (2) the perpetrator overcomes that barrier by non-ordinary means (e.g., breaking a window, forcing a lock, prying open a box). Either damage to the barrier or non-ordinary use can suffice.
It is equivalent to force against property if a device intended to prevent removal is removed without damage or rendered ineffective.

Damage vs non-ordinary use

If a stereo is in a room behind a locked sliding door and the perpetrator pries or breaks the door, that is theft with force against property (with damage). If the perpetrator unhooks the lock without damage using special skill, this is still theft with force against property because the opening method is not ordinary.
 If the door is left slightly ajar and the perpetrator simply slides it open, there is no aggravated form: opening the door in the ordinary way is not “force.”
Breaking a car window to take a jacket, or pressing down a slightly open car window to remove items without damage, both qualify as theft with force against property. In practice, damage and non-ordinary use often coincide.

Special modalities

It does not matter if the barrier is defeated away from the scene and later in time. Taking a locked box or safe with the intent to force it open elsewhere to get the contents still qualifies as theft with force against property.
Sometimes causing damage is unavoidable to take the thing (e.g., picking fruit, tearing a meter seal in electricity theft). Where damage is unavoidable to effect the taking, that damage is not separately blameworthy.

Damage value is not added to theft value

Damage to the barrier cannot be added to the stolen property’s value for grading the offence. Otherwise, the same circumstance would be counted twice (once as an aggravation, again in value).
 Example: forcing a door and stealing items worth HUF 498,000 does not become a higher bracket by adding HUF 15,600 door damage.

Pickpocketing as aggravated theft

The thing is within the victim’s immediate physical custody (pockets, clothing, handbag in hand, backpack on the shoulder, or placed directly beside the person on the floor or chair) and the taking is unnoticed.
 Taking from a bag hung on a coat rack across the room is not pickpocketing (no immediate custody). Snatching cash from the hand and running off is also not pickpocketing (custody exists, but unnoticed taking is missing). These scenarios may still qualify as theft, just not as the pickpocketing modality.

Simultaneous taking of documents or non-cash payment instruments

Theft is aggravated if it involves, at the same time, taking one or more public documents, private documents, or non-cash payment instruments (e.g., a bank card). This often arises in wallet or bag thefts. For grading, it does not matter how many such items are taken; the aggravation applies in statutory unity.

Theft by entering premises (sneak-in theft)

A petty-offence-level taking becomes a crime if the perpetrator enters a room or its fenced appurtenance by deception or without the user’s knowledge or consent.
 This is commonly called “sneak-in theft” in practice: exploiting the victim’s trust, inexperience, or inattention (e.g., posing as a meter reader or social worker, asking for water for a child), or slipping through an unlocked front door to remove items from the hallway, or climbing a fence to remove property from a yard.
A room is any roofed, laterally enclosed area built for dwelling or work. It need not be brick or stone; tents and caravans qualify. Cars and stairwells do not. The fenced appurtenance is the area organically attached to such room.

Theft using a false or stolen key

Using a false key means opening a lock with a tool not made for that lock but capable of opening it (e.g., a pin, bent wire, bank card).
 Using a stolen key means acquiring the key without the owner’s knowledge or consent, for the purpose of entry. For combination locks, obtaining the code falls in this category. Either method may aggravate theft depending on the circumstances.

Theft against a co-occupant

Aggravation applies where the perpetrator commits theft against a person sharing the dwelling or room (e.g., long-term cohabitation, dormitory roommates, hospital ward, military barracks). The victim is more vulnerable due to the relationship of trust and the perpetrator’s inside knowledge of habits and assets.

Theft through unlawful felling in a forest

Given the prevalence of wood theft, taking trees by unlawful felling in a forest is elevated from a petty offence to a crime. “Forest,” “unlawful felling,” and related terms follow forestry legislation; felling is unlawful when done without or contrary to the required authorisation.
Theft at the scene of a public danger
This aggravation concerns time and place: where, due to the destructive effect of a substance or energy, an indeterminate group or a large number of identified persons or valuable property is endangered (e.g., flood, earthquake, gas leak, major fire). Exploiting such situations to commit theft is more severely punished.

Other aggravated circumstances of theft

Further aggravations (often with their own value thresholds) include theft of protected cultural property (including archaeological finds), objects of religious veneration, items from a corpse or from cemeteries/memorial sites.
 Theft of precious metals, precious-metal alloys, or materials subject to metal-trade licensing is also more severely punished.