CHAPTER 34
SENTENCE

Recovery of fine

317. (1) (a) When a person is sentenced to pay a fine without an alternative period of imprisonment, the court passing the sentence may issue a warrant addressed to the sheriff or messenger of the court authorizing him or her to levy, in default of payment by that person of the fine, the amount of the fine by attachment and sale of any movable property belonging to that person.

(b) The amount that may be levied must be sufficient to cover, in addition to the fine, the costs and expenses of the warrant and of the attachment and sale thereunder.

(2) If the proceeds of the sale of the movable property are insufficient to satisfy the amount of the fine and the costs and expenses referred to in subsection (1), the High Court may issue a warrant, or, in the case of a sentence by a magistrate’s court, authorize such magistrate’s court to issue a warrant for the levy against the immovable property of that person of the amount unpaid.

(3) In any case in which an order for the payment of money is made on non-recovery whereof imprisonment may be ordered, and the money is not paid immediately, the court may require the person ordered to make such payment to enter into a bond, with or without sureties as the court considers fit, and in default of his or her doing so, at once pass sentence of imprisonment as if the money had not been recovered.

Court may enforce payment of fine

318. Where a person is sentenced to pay a fine without an alternative period of imprisonment, the court may, without prejudice to any other power under this Act relating to the payment of a fine, enforce payment of the fine, whether as to the whole or any part thereof -

(a) by the seizure of money on the person concerned, but only on proof that no other person has an interest in that money ;

(b) if money is due or is to become due as salary or wages from an employer of the person concerned -
(i) by from time to time ordering that employer to deduct a specified amount from the salary or wages so due and to pay over that amount to the clerk of the court in question ; or
(ii) by ordering that employer to deduct from time to time a specified amount from the salary or wages so due and to pay over that amount to the clerk of the court in question.