Haughton v. Smith

Haughton v Smith, [1975] AC 476, [1973] 3 All ER 1109, [1974] 3 W.L.R. 1 was a case heard in the House of Lords, which held that it was impossible to commit the crime of handling stolen goods where the goods in question were not in fact stolen; nor could an offence of attempting to handle stolen goods be committed in the same circumstances.

Viscount Dilhorne's statement about the impossibility of crimes is often quoted at 19 (citing to All E.R..):

This case was subsequently overturned by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. There is an in-depth discussion of the law of attempted crimes, in particular the debate about criminal liability in issues of impossible crimes.

...
Wikipedia