Licensing (Combating Drug Abuse) Act, 1997
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Powers of court to forfeit sound equipment. |
15.—(1) Where a person is convicted of an offence under section 12 in relation to an unlicensed dance and the court is satisfied that any sound equipment which has been seized from him or her under section 14 , or which was in his or her possession or under his or her control at the relevant time, has been used at the unlicensed dance, the court may make an order for forfeiture under this subsection in respect of that property. | |
(2) The court may make an order under subsection (1) whether or not it also deals with the offender in respect of the offence in any other way and without regard to any restrictions on forfeiture in any enactment. | ||
(3) In considering whether to make an order under subsection (1) in respect of any property, a court shall have regard— | ||
(a) to the value of the property, and | ||
(b) to the likely financial and other effects on the offender of the making of the order. | ||
(4) An order under subsection (1) shall operate to deprive the offender of his or her rights, if any, in the property to which it relates, and the property shall (if not already in their possession) be taken into the possession of the Garda Síochána. | ||
(5) Subject to the provisions of this section, where any property has been forfeited under subsection (1), a judge of the District Court may, on application by a claimant of the property, other than the offender from whom it was forfeited under subsection (1), make an order for delivery of the property to the applicant if it appears to the court that he or she is the owner of the property. | ||
(6) No application shall be made under subsection (5) by any claimant of the property after the expiration of 6 months from the date on which an order under subsection (1) was made in respect of the property. | ||
(7) No such application shall succeed unless the claimant satisfies the court either that he or she had not consented to the offender having possession of the property or that he or she did not know, and had no reason to suspect, that the property was likely to be used at a gathering to which section 12 applies. | ||
(8) An order under subsection (5) shall not affect the right of any person to take, within the period of 6 months from the date of an order under that subsection, proceedings for the recovery of the property from the person in possession of it in pursuance of the order, but on the expiration of that period the right shall cease. | ||
(9) The Minister may make regulations for the disposal of property, and for the application of the proceeds of sale of property, forfeited under subsection (1) where no application by a claimant of the property under subsection (5) has been made within the period specified in subsection (6) or no such application has succeeded. | ||
(10) Every regulation made by the Minister under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which the House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder. | ||
(11) In this section “relevant time” in relation to a person convicted of an offence under section 12 means the time of his or her arrest for the offence or of the issue of a summons in respect of it. |