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Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980
c. 4353

Part III

within a period specified in the order such a statement of his means as the court may require.

(2) A person who fails to comply with an order under subsection (1) above shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50.

(3) If a person in furnishing any statement in pursuance of an order under subsection (1) above makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly furnishes a statement which is false in a material particular, or knowingly fails to disclose any material fact, he shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 4 months or a fine not exceeding £100 or both.

(4) Proceedings in respect of an offence under subsection (3) above may, notwithstanding anything in section 127(1) below, be commenced at any time within 2 years from the date of the commission of the offence or within 6 months from its first discovery by the prosecutor, whichever period expires the earlier.

Power to remit fine. 85.—(1) Where a fine has been imposed on conviction of an offender by a magistrates’ court, the court may, on inquiring into his means or at a hearing under section 82(5) above, remit the whole or any part of the fine if the court thinks it just to do so having regard to any change in his circumstances since the conviction, and where the court remits the whole or part of the fine after a term of imprisonment has been fixed, it shall also reduce the term by an amount which bears the same proportion to the whole term as the amount remitted bears to the whole fine or, as the case may be, shall remit the whole term.

In calculating the reduction in a term of imprisonment required by this subsection any fraction of a day shall be left out of account.

(2) Notwithstanding the definition of " fine" in section 150(1) below, references in this section to a fine do not include any other sum adjudged to be paid on conviction, whether as a pecuniary penalty, forfeiture, compensation or otherwise.

Power of magistrates’ court to fix day for appearance of offender at means inquiry etc. 86.—(1) Where under section 75(1) above a magistrates’ court allows time for payment of a sum adjudged to be paid by a conviction of the court ("the adjudged sum "), the court may on that or any subsequent occasion fix a day on which, if any part of that sum remains unpaid on that day, the offender must appear in person before the court for either or both of the following purposes, namely—

(a) to enable an inquiry into his means to be made under section 82 above;