(1)Where a person is convicted—
(a)under section 3 or 4 of the M1Vagrancy Act 1824, of wandering abroad, or placing himself in any public place, street, highway, court, or passage, to beg or gather alms; or
(b)under section 4 of that Act—
(i)of wandering abroad and lodging in any barn or outhouse, or in any deserted or unoccupied building,or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or waggon, and not giving a good account of himself; or
(ii)of wandering abroad, and endeavouring by the exposure of wounds and deformities to obtain or gather alms,
the court shall not have power to sentence him to imprisonment but shall have the same power to fine him as if this section had not been enacted.
(2)If a person deemed a rogue and vagabond by virtue of section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 is thereafter guilty of an offence mentioned in subsection (1) above, he shall be convicted of that offence under section 4 of that Act and accordingly—
(a)shall not be deemed an incorrigible rogue; and
(b)shall not be committed to the Crown Court,
by reason only of that conviction.
(3)This section applies to offences committed before as well as after it comes into effect.
Marginal Citations