Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

89 Modification of Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981

(1) Part 9 of the Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 is modified as follows in its application to financial penalties by virtue of section 88(6) of this Act.

(2) Article 92 applies in relation to any financial penalty for an amount exceeding £20,000 as if for paragraph (5) there were substituted—

“(5) The period for which a person may be committed to prison under this Article in default of payment or levy of any sum or part of such sum shall not exceed the maximum period which the Crown Court could have fixed under section 35(1)(c) of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 had the financial penalty been a fine imposed by the Crown Court.”

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), if the amount of a financial penalty is specified in a currency other than sterling, that amount must be converted to sterling by reference to the London closing exchange rate on the relevant date.

(4) In subsection (3), the “relevant date” means the date on which the decision imposing the financial penalty was made.

(5) Article 95 applies as if for the words from “he is residing” in paragraph (1) to the end of that paragraph there were substituted “he is residing, or has property or a source of income, in any local justice area in England and Wales—

(a) the court may order that payment of the sum shall be enforceable in that local justice area, and

(b) if such an order is made, the court must notify the Lord Chancellor.”