Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1887

67 Proving and recording previous convictions

Previous convictions against a person accused shall not be laid before the jury, nor shall reference be made thereto in presence of the jury before the verdict is returned ; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the public prosecutor from laying before the jury evidence of such previous convictions where, by the existing law, it is competent to lead evidence of such previous convictions as evidence in causa in support of the substantive charge, or where the person accused shall lead evidence to prove previous good character, and it shall no longer be necessary for the jury to return a verdict finding whether previous convictions against the person accused have been proved or not; but where any such conviction is admitted in evidence by the court, either after a plea of guilty ' or after a verdict of guilty to any charge to which such previous conviction constitutes an aggravation, the court shall have power to take such previous conviction into consideration in awarding punishment, and where any person is convicted of any crime, and also of any aggravation by previous conviction, the clerk of the court in which sentence is pronounced, shall enter in the record of the trial a statement of the contents of any extract conviction that is put in evidence, setting forth the date, the place of trial, the court, the nature of the crime, the aggravations accompanying it, if any, and the sentence pronounced; and where such person is again accused of any offence, in regard to which such conviction may be competently used as an aggravation, a duly certified extract of the conviction setting forth the particulars of previous conviction as above, shall be admissible and sufficient as evidence to prove against him all the previous convictions and aggravations therein set forth.