A person who helps someone else commit a crime but is not present while the crime is being committed is known as an accessory. There are two kinds of accessories:-

An accessory before the fact helps plan or prepare for a crime — for example, he supplies a gun to a bank robber but does not participate in the robbery itself.

An accessory after the fact helps the criminal avoid capture and trial after the crime has been committed. For example, a person who throws the robber’s gun into the river or who allows him to hide from the police in the attic as an accessory after the fact.

In most cases, an accessory before the fact is considered as responsible for the crime as the person who actually commits it, and the two frequently receive the same punishment. An accessory after the fact is treated more leniently because his actions relate more to the obstruction of justice than to the crime itself.