PROCEEDS OF CRIME ACT 1987 - SECT 38 Searches in emergencies

PROCEEDS OF CRIME ACT 1987 - SECT 38

  (1)   Where a police officer suspects, on reasonable grounds, that particular property is tainted property, the police officer may:

  (a)   search a person for the property and, if the property is found in the course of the search, seize the property; or

  (b)   enter upon land, or upon or into premises, and search for the property and, if the property is found in the course of the search, seize the property.

  (2)   A police officer shall not exercise a power under subsection   ( 1) unless:

  (a)   the police officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary to exercise the power in order to prevent the concealment, loss or destruction of the property; and

  (b)   the circumstances are so serious and urgent that they require the immediate exercise of the power without the authority of an order of a court or of a warrant issued under this Act.

  (2A)   Subsection   ( 1) does not apply in respect of particular property unless an information has been laid in respect of the offence that the police officer believes, on reasonable grounds, to be the offence by reason of the commission of which the property is tainted property.

  (2B)   If, in the course of searching, in accordance with subsection   ( 1), for tainted property in relation to a particular indictable offence, a police officer finds:

  (a)   property that the police officer believes, on reasonable grounds, to be tainted property in relation to another indictable offence; or

  (b)   any thing that the police officer believes, on reasonable grounds, will afford evidence as to the commission of a criminal offence;

and the police officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary to seize that property or thing in order to prevent its concealment, loss or destruction, or its use in committing, continuing or repeating the offence or the other offence, the police officer may seize that property or thing.

  (3)   Where a person is searched under this section, the search shall, if it is practicable in the circumstances to do so, be carried out by a person of the same sex.