Powers of Criminal Courts Act 1973

31 Powers, etc., of Crown Court in relation to fines and forfeited recognizances

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, if the Crown Court imposes a fine on any person or forfeits his recognizance, the court may make an order—

(a) allowing time for the payment of the amount of the fine or the amount due under the recognizance;

(b) directing payment of that amount by instalments of such amounts and on such dates respectively as may be specified in the order ;

(c) in the case of a recognizance, discharging the recognizance or reducing the amount due thereunder.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, if the Crown Court imposes a fine on any person or forfeits his recognizance, the court shall make an order fixing a term of imprisonment which that person is to undergo if any sum which he is liable to pay is not duly paid or recovered.

(3) A term of imprisonment fixed under subsection (2) above shall not exceed 12 months, and no person shall on the occasion when a fine is imposed on him or his recognizance is forfeited by the Crown Court be committed to prison in pursuance of an order under that subsection unless—

(a) in the case of an offence punishable with imprisonment, he appears to the court to have sufficient means to pay the sum forthwith;

(b) it appears to the court that he is unlikely to remain long enough at a place of abode in the United Kingdom to enable payment of the sum to be enforced by other methods; or

(c) on the occasion when the order is made the court sentences him to immediate imprisonment or detention in a detention centre for that or another offence, or sentences him as aforesaid for an offence in addition to forfeiting his recognizance, or he is already serving a term of imprisonment or detention in a detention centre.

(4) Where any person liable for the payment of a fine or a sum due under a recognizance to which this section applies is sentenced by the court to, or is serving or otherwise liable to serve, a term of imprisonment, the court may order that any term of imprisonment fixed under subsection (2) above shall not begin to run until after the end of the first-mentioned term of imprisonment.

(5) The power conferred by this section to discharge a recognizance or reduce the amount due thereunder shall be in addition to the powers conferred by any other Act relating to the discharge, cancellation, mitigation or reduction of recognizances or sums forfeited thereunder.

(6) Subject to subsection (7) below, the powers conferred by this section shall not be taken as restricted by any enactment about committal by a magistrates' court to the Crown Court which authorises the Crown Court to deal with an offender in any way in which the magistrates' court might have dealt with him.

(7) Any term fixed under subsection (2) above as respects a fine imposed in pursuance of such an enactment, that is to say a fine which the magistrates' court could have imposed, shall not exceed the period applicable to that fine (if imposed by the magistrates' court) under Schedule 3 to the [1952 c. 55.] Magistrates' Courts Act 1952 or section 285 of the [1952 c. 44.] Customs and Excise Act 1952.

(8) This section shall not apply to a fine imposed by the Crown Court on appeal against a decision of a magistrates' court, but subsections (2) and (3) above shall apply in relation to a fine imposed or recognizance forfeited by the criminal division of the Court of Appeal, or by the House of Lords on appeal from that division, as they apply in relation to a fine imposed or recognizance forfeited by the Crown Court, and references in those subsections to the Crown Court shall be construed accordingly.