Problems of the aggregate application of art. 158 and art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the course of the qualification of crimes in the sphere of housing and communal services

Self-serving crime in the sphere of housing and communal services (hereinafter referred to as housing and communal services) poses an increased social danger due to the fact that the object of crimes is not only property and property rights, but also public safety. In this connection, for the purpose of a special qualification of such acts, the legislator provides for special norms of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which make it possible to take into account the severity of the consequences of a crime by tightening the final sanction. In particular, when committing a theft associated with the disabling of engineering systems and housing and communal services, this act represents an ideal combination of two norms - Article 158 and Article 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. During the study of law enforcement practice, it was found that the norm of Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is not used independently, which indicates its secondary nature, the social danger of which is due to the main (predicate) crime. The ideal set speaks of a single act leading to heteroge- neous socially dangerous consequences (causing harm to various objects of criminal law protection). The author believes that Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in the presence of selfish intent, enters into competition with Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, being in relation to him a secondary crime. At the same time, the legislator’s goal for special criminal-legal protection of public relations in the field of housing and communal services can be achieved taking into account these consequences in the disposition of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In order to eliminate the identified competition, the author proposes to supplement Part 2 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, clause “d” - “theft associated with damage to life support facilities”, and also to exclude a selfish motive from the disposition of Article 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.