Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

43 After section 20 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 there shall be inserted the following section—

“20A False statements as to financial circumstances.

(1) A person who is charged with an offence who, in furnishing a statement of his financial circumstances in response to an official request—

(a) makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular;

(b) recklessly furnishes a statement which is false in a material particular; or

(c) knowingly fails to disclose any material fact,

shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale or both.

(2) For the purposes of this section an official request is a request which—

(a) is made by the clerk of the magistrates' court or the appropriate officer of the Crown Court, as the case may be; and

(b) is expressed to be made for informing the court, in the event of his being convicted, of his financial circumstances for the purpose of determining the amount of any fine the court may impose.

(3) Proceedings in respect of an offence under this section may, notwithstanding anything in section 127(1) of the 1980 Act (limitation of time), be commenced at any time within two years from the date of the commission of the offence or within six months from its first discovery by the prosecutor, whichever period expires the earlier.”.