If someone lent you a phone and it got lost are you still liable and can go you jail?

If you are unable to replace that phone, can you go to jail?

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

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Did your friend loan you the cell phone on a temporary basis with the understanding that you would eventually return it to them?

I assume that you lost the phone by mistake and that you never actually intended stealing the phone as such?

What you have explained is a mistake, or a loss that has been suffered. This is definitely not criminal in nature in any way. If the owner of the cell phone goes to saps to report a "stolen" cell phone I am sure they will open up a docket, but as soon as they speak to you and you make a statement explaining that the phone was not stolen but rather that you lost it by mistake, in my opinion saps will simply close the docket and move on with other cases. 

Simply put, there was no intention on your behalf to steal the cell phone. This means that you cannot be charged with theft. 

The best thing that the owner of the cell phone can do is to take you to the small claims court and hold you liable (in civil proceedings) for the loss that they have suffered as a result of you negligently losing their cell phone.

You have correctly identified that there was no intention on your behalf to steal or otherwise lose the cell phone. This means that you cannot be held criminally liable at all. It does not mean that the saps might not open a docket to investigate. But you should then definitely make a full statement explaining that the cell phone was lost and that you never stole it and you never intended to steal it. 

Does that make sense?/Does that answer your question(s) fully today?