Air Force Act 1955

17 Forfeiture of service for desertion and restoration of forfeited service

(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 (except those relating to discharge by purchase) 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.

(3) In the last foregoing subsection the expression " the appropriate date "—

(a) if in consequence of subsection (1) of this section and an award of the court-martial under Part II of this Act the whole of his previous service is forfeited, means the date of his conviction;

(b) if in consequence of the said subsection (1) or that subsection and an award of the court-martial part only of his previous service is forfeited, means a date earlier than the date of his conviction by the length of service not forfeited.

(4) The Air 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.