Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/455

1886. leave of the High Court or some judge thereof, and satisfies the court or judge that such legal proceeding is not an abuse of the process of the court, and that there is prims facie ground for such proceeding. A copy of such order shall be published in the London Gazette.

2.—(1.) This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland. (2.) This Act may be cited as the Vexatious Actions Act, 1896.

E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1.—(1.) If any person without lawful excuse receives, or has in Punishment his possession, any property stolen outside the United Kingdom,knowing such property to have been stolen, he shall be liable to penal servitude for any term not less than three years and not more than seven years, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and may be indicted in any county or place in which he has, or has had, the property.

(2.) For the purposes of this section property shall be deemed to have been stolen where it has been taken, extorted, obtained, embezzled, converted, or disposed of, under such circumstances that, if the act had been committed in the United Kingdom, the person committing it would have been guilty of an indictable offence according to the law for the time being of the United Kingdom.

(3.) An offence under this section shall be a felony or misdemeanor according as the act committed outside the United Kingdom would have been a felony or misdemeanor if committed in England or Ireland.

(4.) This section shall be construed and have effect as part of the Larceny Act, 1861.

2. This Act may be cited as the Larceny Act, 1896, and the Larceny Act, 1861, and this Act may be cited together as the Larceny Acts, 1861 and 1896.