Section 150Part 10 — Miscellaneous
Effect of accused's failure or refusal to account for objects, substances or marks
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150. (1) Where —
a person is arrested by a police officer, and there is —
on that person’s person;
in or on that person’s clothing or footwear;
otherwise in that person’s possession; or
in any place in which that person is at the time of that person’s arrest, any object, substance or mark, or there is any mark on any such object;
another police officer investigating the case reasonably believes that the presence of the object, substance or mark may be attributable to the participation of the person arrested in the commission of an offence specified by the police officer;
the police officer informs the person arrested that the police officer so believes, and requests that person to account for the presence of the object, substance or mark; and
the person fails or refuses to do so, then if, in any proceedings against the person for the offence so specified, evidence of those matters is given, subsection (2) applies.
A —
court, in determining whether there is a case to answer; or
court or jury, in determining whether the accused is guilty of the offence charged, may draw such inferences from the failure or refusal as appear proper.
Subsections (1) and (2) apply to the condition of clothing or footwear as they apply to a substance or mark thereon.
Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply unless the accused was told in ordinary language by the police officer when making the request mentioned in subsection (1)(c) what the effect of this section would be if the accused failed or refused to comply with the request.
Where the accused was at an authorised place of detention at the time of the failure or refusal, subsections (1) and (2) do not apply if the accused had not been allowed an opportunity to consult an attorney-at-law prior to the request being made.
This section applies in relation to officers of customs and excise as it applies in relation to police officers.
This section does not preclude the drawing of any inference from a failure or refusal of the accused to account for the presence of an object, substance or mark or from the condition of clothing or footwear which could properly be drawn apart from this section.
This section does not apply in relation to a failure or refusal which occurred before the commencement of this section.
Referenced By
- Section 152 — Interpretation of certain references in sections 148, 149, 150 and 151
Reference to section 150