Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1953

12Evidence by certificate.N.I.

(1)In any criminal proceedings, a certificate purporting to be signed by a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, not below the rank of sergeant, or by a person appearing to the court to be suitably qualified, and certifying that a plan or drawing exhibited thereto is a plan or drawing made by him of the place or object specified in the certificate, and that the plan or drawing is correctly drawn to a scale so specified, shall be evidence of the relative position of the things shown on the plan or drawing.

Subs. (2) rep. by 1973 NI 17; subs. (3) rep. by 1969 c. 16 (NI)

(4)Nothing in this section shall be deemed to make a certificate …F1 admissible as evidence in proceedings for an offence except where and to the extent to which oral evidence to the like effect would have been admissible in those proceedings.

(5)Nothing in this section shall be deemed to make a certificate …F1 admissible as evidence in proceedings for any offence—

(a)unless a copy thereof has, not less than seven days before the hearing or trial, been served on the person charged with the offence or on his solicitor, if any; or

(b)if that person or his solicitor, not later than three days before the hearing or trial or within such further time as the court may in special circumstances allow, serves notice on the prosecutor or his solicitor requiring the attendance at the trial of the person who signed the certificate …F1