Page:The Public General Acts and Church Assembly Measure 1960.pdf/16



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:—

If any person fails to pay any sum legally assessed on and due from him in respect of a rate for seven days after it has been legally demanded of him, the payment of that sum may, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this Act, be enforced by distress and sale of his goods and chattels under warrant issued by a magistrates' court ; and, if there is insuffi cient distress, he may be liable to imprisonment under the provisions of this Act in that behalf.

The proceedings for the issue of a warrant of distress under this Act may be instituted by making complaint before a justice of the peace and applying for a summons requiring the person named in the complaint to appear before a magis trates' court to show why he has not paid the rate specified in the complaint.

The forms of complaint and summons in the First Schedule to this Act, or forms to the like effect, may be used in proceedings under this Act.

If the person summoned fails to appear in obedience to the summons and it is proved to the magistrates' court on oath, or in such other manner as may be prescribed by rules under section fifteen of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1949, that the summons was duly served a reasonable time before the time appointed by the summons for his appearance the magis trates' court may, if it thinks fit, proceed in his absence as if he had appeared in person in obedience to the summons.

The justices may state a case under the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952, when called upon to issue a warrant of distress under this Act.

A warrant of distress under this Act may be directed to the rating authority, to the constables of the police area in which the warrant is issued and to such other persons, if any, as the magistrates' court issuing the warrant may think fit, and the warrant shall authorise the persons to whom it is directed to levy the amount which the person against whom the warrant is issued is liable to pay by distress and sale of his goods and chattels.