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’.]
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.