Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2023)

PART 2
GENERAL PROVISIONS AS TO OFFENCES

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      (1)     Any person in or resident in Saint Lucia who contravenes any restriction or requirement imposed by or under this Act, and any such person who conspires or attempts, or aids, abets, counsels or procures any other person, to contravene any such restriction or requirement as aforesaid, commits an offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule.

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           However, an offence punishable by virtue of Part 3 of this Schedule is not punishable under this Part.

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      (2)     Where an offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule is committed by a body corporate, any person who at the time of the commission of the offence was a director, general manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or was purporting to act in any such capacity, commits that offence, unless he or she proves that the contravention was committed without his or her consent or connivance and that he or she exercised all such diligence to prevent the commission of the offence as he or she ought to have exercised having regard to the nature of his or her functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.

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      (3)     Where a corporation is charged, whether alone or jointly with some other person, with an indictable offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule, the magistrate may, if he or she is of opinion that the evidence offered on the part of the prosecution is sufficient to put the accused corporation upon trial, commit the corporation for trial.

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      (4)     Where an indictment has been filed against a corporation in respect of an offence punishable as aforesaid, the corporation may, on arraignment before the High Court enter in writing by its representative a plea of guilty or not guilty, and if either the corporation does not appear by a representative or, though it does so appear, fails to enter as aforesaid any plea, the court shall order a plea of not guilty to be entered and the trial shall proceed as though the corporation had duly entered a plea of not guilty.

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      (5)     Any indictment filed against a corporation or other document addressed to a corporation may be served upon the corporation by leaving it at, or sending it by post to, the registered office of the corporation or, if there be no such office in Saint Lucia, by leaving it at or sending it by post to, the corporation at any place in Saint Lucia at which it trades or conducts business.

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      (6)     In this paragraph the expression “representative” in relation to a corporation means a person duly appointed by the corporation to represent it for the purpose of doing any act or thing which the representative of a corporation is by this Part of this Schedule authorised to do, but a person so appointed shall not, by virtue only of being so appointed, be qualified to act on behalf of the corporation before any court for any other purpose.

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           A representative for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule need not be appointed under the seal of the corporation, and a statement in writing purporting to be signed by a managing director of the corporation, or by any person (by whatever name called) having, or being one of the persons having, the management of the affairs of the corporation, to the effect that the person named in the statement has been appointed as the representative of the corporation for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule shall be admissible without further proof as prima facie evidence that that person has been so appointed.

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      (7)     Any person who commits an offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule is liable—

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         (a)     on summary conviction, to imprisonment for not more than 3 months or to a fine or to both;

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         (b)     on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for not more than 2 years or to a fine or to both,

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      and where the offence is concerned with any currency, any security, any gold, any goods or any other property, the court may, if they think fit so to do, order the currency, security, gold, goods or property to be forfeited.

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      (8)     Except in the case of a body corporate convicted on indictment, the maximum fine which may be imposed for an offence punishable under this Part shall be—

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         (a)     on summary conviction $2,400; and

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         (b)     on conviction on indictment $4,800,

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      so, however, that (in either case) where the offence is concerned with any currency, any security, any payment, any gold, any goods or any other property, and does not consist only of a failure to give information or produce books, accounts or other documents with respect thereto when required so to do under Part 1 of this Schedule, a larger fine may be imposed not exceeding 3 times the amount or value of the currency, security, payment, gold, goods or property.

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      (1)     Proceedings for an offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule, shall not be instituted, except by or with the consent of the Attorney General or appropriate officer.

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           However, this subparagraph shall not prevent the issue or execution of a warrant for the arrest of any person in respect of such an offence, or the remanding in custody or on bail of any person charged with such an offence.

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      (2)     Proceedings against any person in respect of an offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule may be taken before the appropriate court in Saint Lucia having jurisdiction in the place where that person is.

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           However, the Attorney General may, in the case of proceedings cognizable by a district court, direct that such proceedings be instituted in any district court in Saint Lucia.

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      (3)     Any proceeding under a law establishing summary jurisdiction which may be taken against any person in respect of any offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule may, despite anything to the contrary in that law, be taken at any time within 12 months from the date of the commission of the offence or within 3 months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the Director of Finance and Planning to justify the proceedings comes to the knowledge of the Director of Finance and Planning, whichever period last expires, or where the person in question was outside Saint Lucia at the date last mentioned, within 12 months from the date on which he or she first arrives in Saint Lucia thereafter.

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      (4)     For the purpose of this paragraph a certificate of the Director of Finance and Planning as to the date on which such evidence as aforesaid came to the knowledge of the Director of Finance and Planning shall be conclusive evidence thereof.

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   3.   The maximum period of imprisonment that may be imposed by a court of summary jurisdiction in Saint Lucia—

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      (a)     in respect of the non-payment of a sum adjudged to be paid by a conviction for an offence punishable under this Part of this Schedule; or

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      (b)     in respect of the default of a sufficient distress to satisfy any such sum,

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   shall, in cases where the sum exceeds $96, be increased in accordance with the following scale, that is to say—

   Where the amount of the sum adjudged to be paid by the conviction, as ascertained by the conviction—	The said period shall not exceed—
   Exceeds $96 but does not exceed $480	4 months.
   Exceeds $480	6 months.