Criminal Justice Act 1948

29 Committal for sentence in respect of indictable offences tried summarily.

(1) Where, under subsection (2) of section twenty-eight of this Act or section twenty-four of the Criminal Justice Act, 1925, a person who is not less than seventeen years of age is tried summarily by a court of summary jurisdiction for an indictable offence, and is convicted by that court of that offence, then if, on obtaining information as to his character and antecedents, the court is of opinion that they are such that greater punishment should be inflicted in respect of the offence than that court has power to inflict, the court may, in lieu of dealing with him in any manner in which the court has power to deal with him, commit him in custody to quarter sessions for sentence in accordance with the following provisions of this section.

(2) An offender so committed as aforesaid shall be committed—

(a) where the court of summary jurisdiction acts for a county other than the County of London or for a borough not having a separate court of quarter sessions, to the appeal committee of the quarter sessions for that county or for the county in which that borough is situated, as the case may be;

(b) in any other case, to the next court of quarter sessions having jurisdiction in the county, borough or place for which the court of summary jurisdiction acts;

and where the offender is so committed to an appeal committee, the clerk to the court of summary jurisdiction shall notify the clerk of the peace, and the clerk of the peace shall give notice to the prosecutor and to the governor of the prison or remand centre to which the offender is committed of the date on which the case will be dealt with by the appeal committee, being the next available sitting of a court consisting of members of that committee.

(3) Where an offender is so committed for sentence as aforesaid, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) the appeal committee or court of quarter sessions shall inquire into the circumstances of the case, and shall have power to deal with the offender in any manner in which he could be dealt with by a court of quarter sessions before which he had just been convicted of the offence on indictment;

(b) the Poor Prisoners Defence Act, 1930, shall apply as if the offender were committed for trial for an indictable offence, subject to the modifications that in subsection (2) of section one the words " after reading the depositions," and in subsection (2) of section three the words " and the costs of a copy of the depositions " shall be omitted;

(c) the Costs in Criminal Cases Act, 1908, shall apply in relation to the proceedings before the appeal committee or court of quarter sessions as it applies in relation to the prosecution of an offence before a court of quarter sessions; and

(d) if the appeal committee or court of quarter sessions passes a sentence which the court of summary jurisdiction would not have had power to pass, the offender may appeal against the sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal as if he had been convicted on indictment; and the provisions of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, shall apply accordingly.

(4) References to a court of quarter sessions or a court in any enactment as applied by the last foregoing subsection or in any other enactment relating to persons dealt with by quarter sessions (including any such enactment contained in this Act) shall be construed as including references to an appeal committee of quarter sessions by whom an offender is dealt with under that subsection.

(5) In relation to an offender committed for sentence under this section, subsection (1) of section twenty-three of this Act shall have effect as if for the words " by the verdict of a jury," there were substituted the words " by the appeal committee or the court of quarter sessions, as the case may be, and not by the verdict of a jury. "