This Act may be cited as the Probation of Offenders Act and shall apply to such areas, and from such date, as the Minister may, by order, from time to time declare. [L.N. 379/1957, L.N. 172/1960.]
Where a person is placed by a probation order under the supervision of a probation officer, the order shall be without prejudice to the powers of the court, under any law for the time being in force, to order the offender to pay costs, and such damages for injury or compensation for loss as the court may think reasonable.
If, after hearing information on oath, it appears to a judge or magistrate that a probationer has been convicted of an offence committed while the probation order was in force, he may issue a summons requiring the probationer to appear at the place and time specified therein or may issue a warrant for his arrest.
A summons or warrant issued under this section shall direct the probationer to appear or to be brought before the court named therein, and the production to the court of a probation order, purporting to bear the signature of the judge or magistrate who made it, shall be prima facie evidence of the due making thereof.
Where a probationer is convicted by a magistrate of an offence committed while the probation order was in force, the magistrate may commit the probationer to custody or release him on bail, with or without sureties, until he can be brought or appear before the court by which the probation order was made.
Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the court by which the probation order was made that the probationer has been convicted of an offence while the probation order was in force, then—
if the probationer was not convicted of the original offence in respect of which the probation order was made, the court may convict him of that offence and pass any sentence which it could pass if the probationer had just been convicted before that court of that offence; or
if the probationer was convicted of the original offence in respect of which the probation order was made, the court may pass any sentence which it could pass if the probationer had just been convicted before that court of that offence.
Where a probationer in respect of whom a probation order has been made by a magistrate is convicted before the High Court of an offence committed while the probation order was in force, then—
if the probationer was not convicted of the original offence in respect of which the probation order was made, the High Court may convict him of that offence and may pass any sentence which the court which made the probation order could pass if the probationer had just been convicted before that court of that offence; or
if the probationer was convicted of the original offence in respect of which the probation order was made, the High Court may pass any sentence which the court which made the probation order could pass if the probationer had just been convicted before that court of that offence.
Where a person is convicted of an offence and is released under a probation order, his conviction for that offence shall, be disregarded for the purposes of any enactment by or under which any disqualification or disability is imposed upon convicted persons or by or under which provision is made for a different penalty in respect of a second or subsequent offence, or in respect of an offence committed after a previous conviction: Provided that, if the probationer is subsequently sentenced for the original offence, this section shall cease to apply in respect of that offence, and he shall be deemed, for the purposes of any such enactment imposing disqualification or disability, to have been convicted on the date of sentence.
Where a person is released on probation without the court having proceeded to conviction and he is subsequently convicted and sentenced for the original offence, then he shall be deemed, for the purposes of any enactment by or underwhich any disqualification is imposed upon convicted persons or by or under which provision is made for a different penalty in respect of a second or subsequent offence or in respect of an offence committed after a previous conviction, to have been convicted on the date of the conviction and sentence.
Where a probationer is committed to custody or released on bail by a magistrate until he can be brought or appear before the court which made the probation order, the magistrate shall transmit to that court such particulars of the case as he thinks desirable, and, where the probationer has been convicted of a subsequent offence by a magistrate, the magistrate shall transmit to that court a certificate to that effect signed by him, and for the purposes of proceedings in the court to which it is transmitted any such certificate, if purporting to be so signed, shall be admissible as evidence of the conviction.
Such contributions may be made towards the establishment or maintenance of institutions for the reception of persons placed under the supervision of probation officers as Parliament may approve.