30Application by telephone for search warrants

30 Application by telephone for search warrants

(1)  Where, by reason of circumstances of urgency, an eligible person considers it necessary to do so, the eligible person may make application by telephone for a warrant under section 29 .

(2)  Before so making application, the eligible person must prepare an affidavit that sets out the grounds on which the issue of the warrant is being sought, but may, if it is necessary to do so, make the application before the affidavit has been sworn.

(3)  Where an issuing officer issues a warrant under section 29 upon an application made by telephone, he or she must –

(a) complete and sign the warrant; and

(b) inform the eligible person who made the application of the terms of the warrant and the date on which and the time at which it was signed; and

(c) record on the warrant his or her reasons for issuing the warrant; and

(d) send a copy of the warrant to the CEO.

(4)  Where a warrant is issued under section 29 upon an application made by telephone, a member of the staff of the ACC or a member of the Police Service may complete a form of warrant in the terms indicated by the issuing officer under subsection (3) and, where a form of warrant is so completed, he or she must write on it the name of the issuing officer who issued the warrant and the date on which and the time at which it was signed.

(5)  Where a person completes a form of warrant in accordance with subsection (4) , the person must, not later than the day next following the date of expiry of the warrant, send to the issuing officer who signed the warrant the form of warrant completed by him or her and the affidavit duly sworn in connection with the warrant.

(6)  Upon receipt of the documents referred to in subsection (5) , the issuing officer must attach them to the warrant signed by him or her and deal with the documents in the manner in which he or she would have dealt with the affidavit if the application for the warrant had been made to him or her in accordance with section 29 .

(7)  A form of warrant duly completed in accordance with is to be taken to be a warrant issued under .