NTIn ForceAct
Police Administration Act 1978
118Search warrant may be issued by telephone
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118 Search warrant may be issued by telephone
(1) Where it is impracticable for a member of the Police Force to make
application in person to a justice of the peace for a search warrant
under this Act, the member may make application for a search
warrant to a justice of the peace by telephone in accordance with
this section.
(2) Before making application to a justice of the peace by telephone
under subsection (1), a member shall prepare an information on
oath of a kind referred to in section 117(1) or (2) and, where
required by the justice of the peace, an affidavit setting out the
grounds on which the issue of the warrant is sought, but may, if it is
necessary to do so, make the application before the information
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and the affidavit, if required, have been made on oath.
(3) Where a justice of the peace is satisfied, upon application made
under subsection (1), that there are reasonable grounds for issuing
a warrant, the justice of the peace may issue such a search warrant
as he could issue under section 117 if the application had been
made to him in accordance with that section.
(4) Where a justice of the peace issues a warrant under subsection (3):
(a) the justice of the peace shall complete and sign the warrant;
and
(b) the justice of the peace shall inform the member by telephone
of the terms of the warrant signed by him, and record on the
warrant his reasons for issuing it; and
(c) the member shall complete in duplicate a form of warrant in
the terms furnished to him by the justice of the peace and
write on it the name of the justice of the peace who issued the
warrant and the date on which and time at which it was
(5) Where a justice of the peace issues a warrant under subsection (3),
the member shall, not later than the day next following the date of
the expiry of the warrant, forward to the justice of the peace who
issued the warrant the form of warrant prepared by the member and
the information and affidavit, if any, duly made in connection with
the issue of the warrant.
(6) Upon receipt of the documents referred to in subsection (5), the
justice of the peace shall compare the copy of the form of warrant
forwarded to him with the warrant signed by him and, if he is
satisfied that they are in substance identical, he shall note this fact
on the warrant signed by him and forward the warrant together with
the copy of the form of warrant and the information and affidavit, if
any, to the Commissioner of Police or to such member of the Police
Force as may be specified by the Commissioner.
(7) A form of warrant completed by a member in accordance with
subsection (4) is, if it is in accordance with the terms of the warrant
signed by the justice of the peace, authority for any entry or seizure
that it authorises.
(8) Where it is necessary for a court, in any proceeding, to be satisfied
that any entry or seizure was authorised by a warrant issued by a
justice of the peace in accordance with this section, and the warrant
signed by the justice of the peace in accordance with this section is
not produced in evidence, the court shall assume, unless the
contrary is proved, that the entry or seizure was not authorised by
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such warrant.
(9) Where an application has been made to a justice of the peace
pursuant to subsection (1) and the application has been refused by
the justice of the peace, subject to subsection (10), neither the
member of the Police Force who made the application nor any
other member who has any cause to suspect that an application
has been made by another member under subsection (1) in respect
of the same matter, shall make a further application to any justice of
the peace pursuant to subsection (1) in respect of that matter.
(10) Where an application made pursuant to subsection (1) has been
made to a justice of the peace and the application has been refused
by that justice of the peace a further application may be made to a
justice of the peace where a member satisfies a justice of the peace
that the member has, since the time of the original application,
received further information or evidence which is material to an
application under subsection (1).