Public Safety (Punishment of Offences) Temporary Act, 1924
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Recovery of money in Bank representing stolen property or funds. |
7.—(1) If and whenever an Executive Minister shall satisfy a District Justice that there is reasonable ground for suspecting that any sum of money standing to the credit of any person in the books of any Bank or similar institution is, or represents, or is directly or indirectly derived from— | |
(a) any stolen property or funds; or | ||
(b) the proceeds of the sale, letting, or working of, or otherwise dealing with any lands by a person unlawfully in possession thereof or acting without the authority of the person lawfully entitled to the possession thereof; or | ||
(c) any public funds; or | ||
(d) funds which ought to be in the custody or under the control of a Minister or a Government Department; | ||
the District Justice shall by order prohibit any transfer of or other dealing with such sum of money or any part thereof. | ||
(2) Whenever an order is made by a District Justice under this section prohibiting the dealing with any sum of money, the Minister for Finance shall give public notice by advertisement or otherwise of such prohibition, and unless within a time to be limited by such notice (not being less than one month) or such extended time as the Minister for Finance shall allow, some person proves to the satisfaction of an independent assessor nominated by the President and named in the public notice aforesaid that such sum of money belongs to him and is not and does not represent and is not directly or indirectly derived from— | ||
(a) any stolen property or funds; or | ||
(b) the proceeds of the sale, letting, or working of, or otherwise dealing with any lands by a person unlawfully in possession thereof or acting without the authority of the person lawfully entitled to the possession thereof; or | ||
(c) any public funds; or | ||
(d) funds which ought to be in the custody or under the control of a Minister or a Government Department; | ||
the Minister for Finance shall certify in writing that such sum of money is forfeited to the Minister for Finance. | ||
Every person named as an assessor under this sub-section shall, be either a person holding judicial office in Saorstát Eireann or a practising member of the Senior Bar in Saorstát Eireann. | ||
(3) If within such time or extended time as is mentioned in the foregoing sub-section any person proves to the satisfaction of the assessor aforesaid the matters mentioned in the foregoing sub-section, the Minister for Finance shall certify in writing that the order made by the District Justice under this section in respect of such sum of money may be discharged, and upon production of such certificate to a District Justice such District Justice shall discharge such order. | ||
(4) A certificate given by the Minister for Finance under this section certifying the forfeiture of any sum of money shall operate to vest in the Minister for Finance, as from the time of the production of such certificate to the Bank or institution in whose books the sum of money aforesaid is standing, the whole of such sum of money. | ||
(5) All money forfeited to the Minister for Finance under this section shall, after payment thereout of the costs and expenses incurred in the recovery thereof, be applied by the Minister for Finance in recouping the person from whom such money was directly or indirectly stolen or the fund to which such money directly or indirectly belongs. | ||
(6) Section 11 of the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act, 1923 (No. 28 of 1923), shall be deemed to have continued as from the expiration of that Act, and shall continue for the duration of this Act, in force so far as may be necessary— | ||
(a) to continue in full force and effect every order made by a District Justice under the said Section 11 previous to the expiration of that Act; and | ||
(b) to validate all such steps as shall have been taken since such expiration, and to authorise such steps to be hereafter taken, by the Minister for Finance or any other person under or in pursuance of or consequent upon any such order which that Minister or person could have taken or could take under the said Section 11 if that Act had not expired. |