Bankrupt failing to keep proper accountsBankrupt failing to keep proper accounts.

### Bankrupt failing to keep proper accounts. E.B.A., s. 158. S.A., s. 175 (vi) (d). 213.—(1.) If any person who has on any previous occasion been a bankrupt or made a composition or arrangement with his creditors becomes a bankrupt, he shall be guilty of an offence, if, having during the whole or any part of the two years immediately preceding the date of the presentation of the bankruptcy petition been engaged in any trade or business, he has not kept proper books of account throughout those two years or part thereof, as the case may be, and, if so engaged at the date of presentation of the petition, thereafter, whilst so engaged, up to the date of the sequestration order, or has not preserved all books of account so kept: Provided that a person who has not kept or has not preserved those books of account shall not be convicted of an offence under this section if he proves that in the circumstances in which he traded or carried on business the omission was honest and excusable. (2.) A prosecution shall not be instituted against any person under this section except by order of the Court. (3.) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed not to have kept proper books of account if he has not kept such books or accounts as are necessary to exhibit or explain his transactions and financial position in his trade or business, including a book or books containing entries from day to day in sufficient detail of all cash received and cash paid, and, where the trade or business has involved dealings in goods, also accounts of all goods sold and purchased, and statements of annual stocktakings. (4.) Sub-section (2.) of section two hundred and ten of this Act (so far as it relates to the destruction, mutilation, and falsification and other fraudulent dealing with books and documents), shall, in its application to the books mentioned in this section, have effect as if “two years next before the presentation of the bankruptcy petition” were substituted for the time mentioned in that sub-section as the time prior to the presentation within which the acts or omissions specified in that sub-section constitute an offence.