Bankruptcy and Deeds of Arrangement Act 1913

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1913 c. 34
Year1913


Bankruptcy and Deeds of Arrangement Act, 1913

(3 & 4 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 34.

An Act to amend the Law with respect to Bankruptcy and Deeds of Arrangement.

[15th August 1913]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I Bankruptcy.

Part I.

Bankruptcy.

S-1 Power to prosecute offences summarily.

1 Power to prosecute offences summarily.

(1) Any offence under, or which may be dealt with as if it were an offence under, the Debtors Act, 1869 , alleged to have been committed by a person who has been adjudged bankrupt, or in respect of whose estate a receiving order has been made, may be prosecuted summarily, and, if so prosecuted, references in the enactments creating those offences to the jury shall be construed as references to a court of summary jurisdiction:

Provided that—

(a ) the maximum term of imprisonment, with or without hard labour, which may be awarded by a court of summary jurisdiction for any such offence shall be six months; and

(b ) summary proceedings in respect of any such offence shall not be instituted after one year from the first discovery thereof either by the Official Receiver or by the trustee in the bankruptcy, or, in the case of proceedings instituted by a creditor, by the creditor, nor in any case shall they be instituted after three years from the commission of the offence.

(2) Where the prosecution of a person for any such offence is ordered by the court, and the order of the court is made on the application of the Official Receiver and based on his report, the Board of Trade may, notwithstanding anything in section one hundred and sixty-six of the Bankruptcy Act, 1883 (herein-after referred to as ‘the principal Act’), themselves or through the Official Receiver institute the prosecution and carry on the proceedings, if or so long as those proceedings are conducted before a court of summary jurisdiction, unless in the course thereof circumstances arise which, in the opinion of such court or of the Board, render it desirable that the remainder of the proceedings should be carried on by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

S-2 Provisions with respect to offences under the Debtors Act, 1869.

2 Provisions with respect to offences under the Debtors Act, 1869.

(1) Where under the Debtors Act, 1869, an act or default committed by a person who has been adjudged bankrupt, or in respect of whose estate a receiving order has been made, is an offence unless the jury are satisfied that he had no intent to defraud, or (as the case may be) to conceal the state of his affairs or to defeat the law, it is hereby declared that the onus of proving the absence of such intent lies upon the person accused, and that it is not necessary to allege in the indictment or information charging the offence, or to prove, any such intent.

(2) Any acts or defaults committed after the commencement of this Act by any person who has been adjudged bankrupt, or in respect of whose estate a receiving order has been made, which under any of the provisions of the Debtors Act, 1869, are made offences if committed within four months next before the presentation of a bankruptcy petition by or against such person, shall be offences if committed within six months next before the presentation of such a petition.

(3) Any act or default which under paragraphs thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen of section eleven of the Debtors Act, 1869, as amended by this section, is an offence if committed within six months next before the presentation of a bankruptcy petition, shall be an offence if committed after the presentation of a bankruptcy petition and before the making of a receiving order.

(4) Paragraphs fourteen and fifteen of section eleven of the Debtors Act, 1869 (which make certain acts offences if committed by traders), shall extend to the like acts committed after the commencement of this Act by persons who are not traders, and accordingly those paragraphs in relation to persons who are not traders shall have effect as if the words ‘being a trader,’ wherever they occur in those paragraphs, and the words ‘otherwise than in the ordinary way of his trade,’ which occur in paragraph fifteen, were omitted therefrom.

(5) Section eleven of the Debtors Act, 1869, shall be construed and have effect as if references to the trustee administering an estate for the benefit of creditors included references to the Official Receiver.

(6) Section fourteen of the Debtors Act, 1869 (which relates to false claims by creditors), shall extend to persons claiming to be creditors, and accordingly in that section after the word ‘creditor’ there shall be inserted the words ‘or any person claiming to be a creditor.’

(7) Notwithstanding anything in section sixteen of the Debtors Act, 1869, it shall not be obligatory on any court, in the absence of any application by the Official Receiver for such an order, to make an order under that section for the prosecution of an offence, unless it appears to the court not only that there is a reasonable probability that the bankrupt will be convicted, but also that the circumstances are such as to render a prosecution desirable.

(8) The Debtors Act, 1869, shall, as regards any acts or defaults committed after the commencement of this Act, have effect as if for section eleven thereof there were substituted the provisions set forth in the First Schedule to this Act, being the said section eleven as amended by subsequent enactments, including this section.

S-3 Punishment on bankrupt failing to keep proper accounts.

3 Punishment on bankrupt failing to keep proper accounts.

(1) If any person who has on any previous occasion been adjudged bankrupt or made a composition or arrangement with his creditors is adjudged bankrupt, or if a receiving order is made in respect of his estate, he shall be guilty of an offence and may be dealt with and punished as if he had been guilty of an offence under section eleven of the Debtors Act, 1869, if, having during the whole or any part of the two years immediately preceding the date of the presentation of the bankruptcy petition been engaged in any trade or business, he has not kept proper books of account throughout those two years or such part thereof as aforesaid, and, if so engaged at the date of presentation of the petition, thereafter, whilst so engaged, up to the date of the receiving order, or has not preserved all books of account so kept:

Provided that a person who has not kept or has not preserved such books of account shall not be convicted of an offence under this section if his unsecured liabilities at the date of the receiving order did not exceed one hundred pounds, or if he proves that in the circumstances in which he traded or carried on business the omission was honest and excusable.

(2) A prosecution shall not be instituted against any person under this section except by order of the court, nor, where the receiving order in the bankruptcy is made within two years, from the commencement of this Act.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed not to have kept proper books of account if he has not kept such books or accounts as are necessary to exhibit or explain his transactions and financial position in his trade or business, including a book or books containing entries from day to day in sufficient detail of all cash received and cash paid, and, where the trade or business has involved dealings in goods, also accounts of all goods sold and purchased, and statements of annual stocktakings.

(4) Paragraphs (9), (10) and (11) of section eleven of the Debtors Act, 1869 (which relate to the destruction, mutilation and falsification and other fraudulent dealing with books and documents), shall, in their application to such books as aforesaid, have effect as if ‘two years next before the presentation of the bankruptcy petition’ were substituted for the time mentioned in those paragraphs as the time prior to the presentation within which the acts or omissions specified in those paragraphs constitute an offence.

S-4 Punishment of bankrupt for gambling, &c.

4 Punishment of bankrupt for gambling, &c.

(1) Any person who has been adjudged bankrupt, or in respect of whose estate a receiving order has been made, shall be guilty of an offence, and may be dealt with and punished as if he had been guilty of an offence under section eleven of the Debtors Act, 1869, if, having been engaged in any trade or business, and having outstanding at the date of the receiving order any debts contracted in the course and for the purposes of such trade or business,—

(a ) he has, within two years prior to the presentation of the bankruptcy petition, materially contributed to or increased the extent of his insolvency by gambling or by rash and hazardous speculations, and such gambling or speculations are unconnected with his trade or business; or

(b ) he has, between the date of the presentation of the petition and the date of the receiving order, lost any part of his estate by such gambling or rash and hazardous speculations as aforesaid; or

(c ) on being required by the Official Receiver at any time, or, in the course of his public examination, by the court, to account for the loss of any substantial part of his estate incurred within a period of a year next preceding the date of the presentation of the bankruptcy petition, or between that date and the date of the receiving order, he fails to give a satisfactory explanation of the manner in which such loss was incurred:

Provided that, in determining for the purposes of this section whether any speculations were rash and hazardous, the financial position of the accused person at the time when he entered into the speculations shall be taken into consideration.

(2) A prosecution shall not be instituted against any...

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