The Criminal Procedure Rules 2014

When this Part applies

52.1.—(1) This Part applies where a magistrates’ court can enforce payment of—

(a) a fine, or a sum that legislation requires the court to treat as a fine; or

(b) any other sum that a court has ordered to be paid—

(i) on a conviction, or

(ii) on the forfeiture of a surety.

(2) Rules 52.7 to 52.9 apply where the court, or a fines officer, issues a warrant that requires someone to—

(a) take control of goods or money belonging to the defendant;

(b) remove and sell any such goods; and

(c) pay any such money, and any proceeds of such a sale, to the court officer towards payment of a sum to which this Part applies.

(3) In this Part—

(a) ‘defendant’ means anyone liable to pay a sum to which this Part applies;

(b) ‘payment terms’ means by when, and by what (if any) instalments, such a sum must be paid.

[Note. For the means by which a magistrates’ court may enforce payment, see—

(a) Part 3 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980(1); and

(b) Schedule 5 to the Courts Act 2003(2) and the Fines Collection Regulations 2006(3).

Under that Schedule and those Regulations, some enforcement powers may be exercised by a fines officer.

In some legislation, including the 1980 and 2003 Acts, a warrant to which this Part applies was described as ‘a warrant of distress’. In the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007(4), such a warrant is described as ‘a warrant of control’.]

(1)

1980 c. 43.

(2)

2003 c. 39; Schedule 5 was amended by articles 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 of S.I. 2006/1737. It is further amended by section 88 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c. 10), with effect from a date to be appointed.

(3)

S.I. 2006/501.

(4)

2007 c. 15.