Page:Vulnerable Adults Act 2018.pdf/57

58 Amendment of Penal Code

40. The Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) is amended—
 * (a) by inserting, immediately after section 74, the following section:
 * “Enhanced penalties for offences against vulnerable adults
 * 74A.—(1) This section applies where a person is convicted on or after the date of commencement of the Vulnerable Adults Act 2018 of an offence specified in subsection (3) (called in this section the offender) against a vulnerable adult.
 * (2) The court may sentence the offender to punishment not exceeding one and a half times the maximum punishment that the court could, but for this section, impose for the offence, if at the time of committing the offence the offender knew or ought reasonably to have known that the victim was a vulnerable adult.
 * (3) The offence mentioned in subsection (1) is any of the following offences:
 * (a) an offence under section 304A, 323, 324, 325, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 341, 342, 343, 344, 346, 347, 352, 354(1), 355, 357, 358, 376G, 508 or 509;
 * (b) an offence of criminal intimidation which is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with both, under section 506.
 * (4) Despite anything to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68)—
 * (a) a Magistrate’s Court has jurisdiction to try the offences punishable under sections 304A(a), 338(a) and 376G, and power to impose the full punishment