Article 17 Retention

(1)

Subject to paragraph (4), anything which has been seized by a person exercising any power of seizure conferred by or under Part 2, including anything taken away by a person following a requirement made by virtue of articles 14 or 15, may be retained so long as is necessary in all the circumstances.

(2)

Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1)—

(a)

anything seized for the purposes of an investigation of an offence may be retained, except as provided by paragraph (4)—

(i)

for use as evidence in service disciplinary proceedings or at a trial for an offence; or

(ii)

for forensic examination or for investigation in connection with an offence; and

(b)

anything may be retained in order to establish its lawful owner, where there are reasonable grounds for believing that it has been obtained in consequence of the commission of an offence under any of the services Acts.

(3)

Nothing seized under—

(a)

section 54(4)(a) of the 1984 Act^f1 as applied to investigations of offences conducted under the services Acts or to persons under arrest under any of those Acts by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Application to the Armed Forces) Order 1997^f2; or

(b)

section 10(10) or (11) on the grounds that the person searched may use it—

(i)

to cause physical injury to himself or to any other person, or

(ii)

to assist him to escape from lawful custody;

may be retained when the person from whom it was seized is no longer in custody or has been released from custody.

(4)

Nothing may be retained for either of the purposes mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) if a photograph or copy would be sufficient for that purpose.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: By virtue of section 16(1), the 1984 Act means the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (c. 60).
f2: S.I. 1997/15.