Section 151Part 10 — Miscellaneous
Effect of accused's failure or refusal to account for presence at a particular place
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151. (1) Where —
a person arrested by a police officer was found by that police officer at a place at or about the time the offence for which that person was arrested is alleged to have been committed;
that or another police officer investigating the offence reasonably believes that the presence of the person at that place and at that time may be attributable to that person’s participation in the commission of the offence;
the police officer informs the person that the police officer so believes, and requests that person to account for that presence; and
the person fails or refuses to do so, then if, in any proceedings against the person for the offence, evidence of those matters is given, subsection (2) applies.
A —
court, in determining whether there is a case to answer; and
court or jury, in determining whether the accused is guilty of the offence charged, may draw such inferences from the failure or refusal as appear proper.
Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply unless the accused was told in ordinary language by the police officer when making the request mentioned in subsection (1)(c) what the effect of this section would be if the accused failed or refused to comply with the request.
Where the accused was at an authorised place of detention at the time of the failure or refusal, subsections (1) and (2) do not apply if the accused had not been allowed an opportunity to consult an attorney-at-law prior to the request being made.
This section applies in relation to officers of customs and excise as it applies in relation to police officers.
This section does not preclude the drawing of any inference from a failure or refusal of the accused to account for that accused’s presence at a place which could properly be drawn apart from this section.
This section does not apply in relation to a failure or refusal which occurred before the commencement of this section.
Referenced By
- Section 152 — Interpretation of certain references in sections 148, 149, 150 and 151
Reference to section 151