5 and includes a savings bank of any descrip- A.D. 1923. tion : The expression "banker's book " means any ledger, day book, cash book, account book, and any 21. (1) Every information, complaint, warrant or Form of summons laid or issued for the purpose of or in connection information, with any proceedings before examining justices or a court criminal 10 of summary jurisdiction for an offence shall be sufficient proceeding 15 if it contains a statement of the specific offence with which before the accused person is charged, together with such particu- justices. lars as may be necessary for giving reasonable information as to the nature of the charge. (2) The statement of the offence shall describe the offence shortly in ordinary language, avoiding as far as possible the use of technical terms, and without necessarily stating all the essential elements of the offence, and, if the offence charged is one created by 20 statute, shall contain a reference to the section of the statute creating the offence. 25 (3) After the statement of the offence, particulars of the offence shall be set out in ordinary language, in which the use of technical terms shall not be necessary: Provided that, where any rule of law or any statute limits the particulars of an offence which are to be required to be given, nothing in this section shall require any more particulars to be given than those so required. (4) Notwithstanding anything in this section, any 30 information, complaint, warrant or summons to which this section applies which is in such form as would have been sufficient in law if this Act had not passed shall notwithstanding this Act be sufficient in law. summary proceedings. 22. Where in any proceedings in a court of sum- Evidence of 35 mary jurisdiction it is material to prove any person's payment of wages, a written statement as to the wages paid for any wages in period to that person, shall, if proved to the satisfaction of the court to have been signed by his employer for that period or by any responsible person in the employment 40 of the employer, be prima facie evidence that the wages therein stated to have been paid for that period to that person, were in fact so paid. A.D. 1923 Power to Abolition of 23. The Lord Chancellor may make rules for regulating, subject to the provisions of the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, and any Act amending that Act (including this Act), the practice and procedure of justices under those Acts and with respect to the forms to be used under those 5 Acts, and generally for carrying those Acts into effect, and provision may be made by such rules for revoking or amending any of the forms contained in the Schedule to the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, and for substituting new forms for any of those forms. 24. (1) Any presumption of law that an offence presumption committed by a wife in the presence of her husband is committed under the coercion of the husband is hereby abolished. of coercion of married Amendment of Forgery 10 (2) This section shall come into operation on the 15 passing of this Act. 25.-(1) For the purpose of removing doubts it is of ss. 1 & 18 hereby declared that a document may be a false docunient within the meaning of the Forgery Act, 1913, notwithstanding that it is not false in any such manner as is 20 described in subsection (2) of section one of that Act. 3 & 4 Geo. 5. c. 27. (2) The Forgery Act, 1913, shall have effect as though in the definition of "valuable security" in section eighteen thereof there were inserted after the words "security for the payment of money" the words "or any authority or 25 request for the payment of money or for the delivery or transfer of goods or chattels." 66 66 26.--(1) The forgery of any passport, or the making by any person of a statement which is to his knowledge untrue for the purpose of procuring a passport, whether 30 for himself or any other person, shall be a misdemeanour punishable with imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or both such imprisonment and fine. (2) In this section the expression "forgery" has the 35 same meaning as in the Forgery Act, 1913. 27. Where a person has been convicted by a court of summary jurisdiction of an offence under section forty-two of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861 (which imposes a penalty on persons committing any 40 common assault or battery) he shall instead of being liable to a fine not exceeding, together with costs, the sum of five pounds, be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds in addition to any costs which the court may order him to pay. A.D. 1923. Hertford Acts, 1874 and 1878. 28.--(1) The justices of the peace for the county of Amendment 5 Hertford shall in every year hold alternately within the of county of Hertford division and within the Liberty of St. Alban division of the said county courts of general or quarter sessions of the peace for the whole county of Hertford: (a) An Epiphany session within the Hertford division in the first week after the twenty-eighth day of c. 50. December; 10 15 20 (b) An Easter session within the Liberty of St. Alban (c) A Midsummer session within the Hertford divi- (d) A Michaelmas session within the Liberty of (2) The said justices shall, on each occasion after holding in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this section a session in one of the said divisions of the county, hold a session by adjournment in the other of the said 25 divisions. 30 (3) Every court held under this section shall be a court of quarter sessions for the whole county of Hertford, and shall have power to hear, determine, and dispose of all business accordingly. (4) The justices resident in the Hertford division shall from time to time at sessions held under this section in that division elect persons to act as chairman and deputy chairman of the court of quarter sessions of the county of Hertford when the court is sitting within the 35 Hertford division, and the justices resident in the Liberty of St. Alban division shall from time to time at sessions held under this section in that division elect persons to act as chairman and deputy chairman of the said court when the court is sitting within the Liberty of St. Alban 40 division. (5) Section five of the County of Hertford Act, 1878, 37 & 38 Vict. c. 45; A.D. 1923. Hertford division quarter sessions and the St. Alban division quarter sessions there were respectively substituted references to the sessions for the county of Hertford held under this Act within the Hertford division and the sessions for the said county so held within the Liberty of St. Alban division. Short title, interpretation, extent, repeal, and com mencement. (6) This section shall come into operation on the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-three. 29.-(1) This Act may be cited as the Criminal Justice Act, 1923. 5 10 (2) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requiresThe expression "examining justices) means the justices before whom a charge is made against any person for an indictable offence, and references to 15 examining justices include a reference to a single examining justice: The expression "quarter sessions" includes quarter sessions held by adjournment and intermediate quarter sessions. (3) This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Northern Ireland. (4) The enactments set out in the Third Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule. (5) This Act shall, save as therein otherwise expressly provided, come into operation on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-four. 20 25 SCHEDULES. A.D. 1923. FIRST SCHEDULE. OFFENCES TRIABLE AT QUARTER SESSIONS. Section 1. 1. Offences under sections sixteen and seventeen of the 24 & 25 Vict. 5 Malicious Damage Act, 1861. 2. Unlawful combinations and conspiracies to cheat and defraud. c. 97. 3. Offences under section thirteen of the Criminal Law 48 & 49 Vict. Amendment Act, 1885, as amended by any other enactment, in c. 69. 10 respect of which the accused claims to be tried with a jury. 4. Offences under paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section two of the Forgery Act, 1913, in relation to any docu- 3 & 4 Geo. 5. ment being an authority or request for the payment of c. 27. money or for the delivery or transfer of goods and chattels 15 where the amount of the money or the value of the goods or chattels does not exceed twenty pounds, and, under paragraph (a) of section seven of the Forgery Act, 1913, where the amount of the money or the value of the property in respect of which the offence is committed does not exceed twenty 20 pounds, and uttering any forged document the forgery of which is an offence triable at quarter sessions. 5. Offences under paragraph (iv) of subsection (1) of section twenty and under section twenty-four of the Larceny 6 & 7 Geo. 5. Act, 1916. c. 50. 25 SECOND SCHEDULE. Section 2. INDICTABLE OFFENCES BY ADULTS WHICH MAY BE 1. Offences under sections sixteen, twenty, twenty-one and fifty-one of the Malicious Damage Act, 1861, as amended by 24 & 25 Vict. 30 any other enactment. 2. Misdemeanours under the Coinage Offences Act, 1861. 3. Offences under sections twenty and forty-seven of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861. 4. Offences under paragraph (1) of section thirteen of the 35 Debtors Act, 1869. 5. Offences under the Falsification of Accounts Act, 1875. c. 97. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 99. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 62. 38 & 39 Vict. |