Air Force Act 1955 (repealed)

17 Forfeiture of service for desertion and restoration of forfeited service. F4 F5 U.K.

(1) Where an airman of the regular air force is convicted of desertion by court-martial, the period of his service as respects which he is convicted of having been a deserter shall be forfeited.

(2) Where any of an airman’s service is forfeited the provisions of this Part of this Act . . . F1 shall apply to him, and he shall be liable to serve, in like manner as if the appropriate date were the date of his attestation and he had, on the appropriate date, been duly enlisted to serve for the like term (both as respects duration and as respects liability to air-force service and any liability to serve in the reserve) as that for which he was in fact serving at the date of his conviction:

Provided that where at the date of his conviction the airman was serving a term ending with the expiration of a period beginning with the date of his attaining the age of eighteen years and he had attained that age when he was convicted (whether or not he had attained it when the offence was committed) the duration of the term for which he is liable to serve shall be equal to that period and the time for which he is required to serve in air-force service shall be reduced accordingly.

[F2 (3) In subsection (2) above “the appropriate date” means in relation to any person a date earlier than the date of his conviction for desertion by the length of his service which is not forfeited.]

(4) [F3 The Defence Council] may by regulations make provision for the restoration in whole or in part of any forfeited service to an airman in consideration of good service or on other grounds justifying the restoration; and any service restored to an airman under this subsection shall be credited to him for the purpose of determining for the purposes of this Act the amount of service, air-force service, or service in the reserve, as the case may require, which he has served or is liable to serve.

(5) Nothing in this section shall require a person who has been re-engaged under section seven of this Act for a period ending on the date on which he attains a specified age to serve for any period after that date.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words repealed by armed Forces Act 1976 (c. 52), Sch. 10

F2 S. 17(3) substituted by Armed Forces Act 1971 (c. 33), s. 78(4), Sch. 1 para. 1(2)

F3 Words substituted by S.I. 1964/488, Sch. 1 Pt. I

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 17 modified by Army and Air Force Act 1961 (c. 52), s. 13; restricted ibid., Sch. 2

Textual Amendments applied to the whole legislation

F4 Act: the provisions of the 1955 Acts providing for findings of courts-martial to be subject to confirmation and to revision at the direction of the confirming officer cease to have effect (1.4.1997 subject to art. 3 of the commencing S.I.) by virtue of 1996 c. 46, s. 15; S.I. 1997/304, arts. 2, 3, Sch. 2

F5 Act repealed (1.1.2008 for the repeal of s. 180 only, 1.10.2008 for the repeal of ss. 135-137 and 28.3.2009 for further specified purposes) by Armed Forces Act 2006 (c. 52), s. 383(2), Sch. 17; S.I. 2007/2913, art. 3 (with art. 4(1)(2)); S.I. 2008/1650, art. 2(e) (with art. 3); S.I. 2009/812, art. 3(a)(b) (with transitional provisions in S.I. 2009/1059)