Enforcement of Costs under the Criminal Justice Act, 1948
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834901300108 |
| Published date | 01 January 1949 |
| Date | 01 January 1949 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Enforcement of Costs under
The
Criminal Justice
Act
1948
W
HE
N
the
new provisions of
the
Criminal Justice Act
1948, dealing
with
probation
and
discharge, come
into force,
the
Courts will
have
to decide whether costs,
damages
and
compensation ordered to be
paid
by
adefend-
ant
who is discharged either absolutely or conditionally,
or in respect of whom aprobation order is made, constitute
Ita
sum
adjudged to be
paid
by
aconviction" for
the
purposes of
the
Money
Payments
(Justices Procedure) Act
1~35.
The
question is of some importance, for upon
it
depends
the
correct procedure to be adopted in enforcing
such costs, etc.
The
present position is
that
an order made under
section 1 of
the
Probation of Offenders Act 1907 dismissing
the
information or discharging
the
offender conditionally
on his entering into arecognizance,
with
or without a
probation order, is made
"without
proceeding to con-
viction". Consequently
any
costs, damages or compen-
sation ordered to be
paid
by
the
defendant
under
the
provisions of s.L(I) of
the
Criminal Justice (Amendment)
Act
1926 cannot be construed as "sums adjudged
to
be
paid
by
aconviction"
and
are therefore enforceable
by
distress or imprisonment without an enquiry into means,
under s.18 of
the
Summary
Jurisdiction Act 1848.
When
sections 1 to 12 of
the
Criminal
Justice
Act
1948
become operative, however,
and
the
Probation of Offenders
Act 1907
and
the
Criminal
Justice
(Amendment)
Act
1926
are
both
repealed
under
the
Tenth
Schedule to
that
Act,
the
position will be materially altered. Thereafter
the
general powers of
the
Court
to
award costs will depend in
the
first instance upon
the
interpretation of s.12(1) of
the
Criminal
Justice
Act 1948 as to whether there is a "con-
viction" when an order is made under s.3 or s.7 of
that
Act.'
Section 12(1) reads as follows:
"Subject
as hereinafter
provided, aconviction of
an
offence for which an order is
G
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