(1) At the trial of a person charged with handling stolen goods, evidence may be given at any stage of the proceedings that there was found in his or her possession other property stolen within the immediately preceding period of 12 months, and such evidence may be taken into consideration for the purpose of proving that he or she knew the property to be stolen which is the subject of the proceedings taken against him or her.
(2) At the trial of a person charged with handling stolen goods, where evidence has been given that the stolen property was found in his or her possession, then if, within immediately preceding period of 5 years he or she has been convicted of any offence involving fraud or dishonesty, evidence of his or her previous conviction may be given at any stage of the proceedings after he or she has been given not less than 3 days written notice by the prosecutor to give evidence of his or her previous convictions.
(3) Evidence of the previous convictions of an accused person may be taken into consideration for the purpose of proving that the accused person knew the property was stolen.
(4) For the purposes of this section it is not necessary to set out in the indictment the previous convictions.