32AGWarrants may be granted by telephone

32AG Warrants may be granted by telephone

(1) Where, because of circumstances of urgency, an investigator thinks it necessary to do so, the investigator may apply for a warrant under section 32AF by telephone, in accordance with this section. (2) Before making such an application, an investigator must prepare an information of the kind mentioned in subsection 32AF(2) 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 information has been sworn. (3) Where a magistrate to whom an application under this section is made is satisfied: (a) after having considered the terms of the information prepared under subsection (2); and (b) after having received any further information that the magistrate may require about the grounds on which the issue of the warrant is being sought; that there are reasonable grounds for issuing the warrant, the magistrate must complete and sign a warrant that is the same as the warrant that the magistrate would issue under section 32AF if the application had been made under that section. (4) Where a magistrate signs a warrant under subsection (3): (a) the magistrate must inform the investigator of the terms of the warrant, the date and time when it was signed, and the day on which it ceases to have effect, and record on the warrant the reasons for issuing it; and (b) the investigator must complete a form of warrant in the terms given to the investigator by the magistrate and write on it the magistrate’s name and the date and time when the warrant was signed. (5) Where an investigator completes a form of warrant, the investigator must, not later than the day after: (a) the day on which the warrant ceases to have effect; or (b) the day on which the warrant is executed; whichever happens first, send the magistrate who signed the warrant the form of warrant completed by the investigator and the information duly sworn in connection with the warrant. (6) Upon receipt of the documents mentioned in subsection (5), the magistrate must attach to them the warrant signed by the magistrate and deal with the documents in the same way that the magistrate would have dealt with the information if the application for the warrant had been made under section 32AF. (7) The form of warrant completed by an investigator under subsection (4) is, if it is in accordance with the terms of the warrant signed by the magistrate, authority for any entry, search, seizure or other exercise of a power that the warrant so signed authorised. (8) Where, in any proceedings, the court must be satisfied that an entry, search, seizure, or other exercise of power, was authorised under this section, and the warrant signed by a magistrate under this section authorising the entry, search, seizure, or other exercise of power, is not produced in evidence, the court must assume, unless the contrary is proved, that the entry, search, seizure, or other exercise of power, was not authorised by such a warrant.