Guardianship and Administration Act 2000

Subject to subsection (2), a charge of an indictable offence against this Act must be heard and decided summarily.

A Magistrates Court must abstain from dealing summarily with a charge mentioned in subsection (1) if satisfied, on an application made by the prosecution or the defence, that because of exceptional circumstances the charge should not be heard and decided summarily.

If subsection (2) applies to a Magistrates Court—

the court must stop treating the proceeding as a proceeding to hear and decide the charge summarily and start treating the proceeding as a committal proceeding; and

the defendant’s plea at the start of the hearing must be disregarded; and

the evidence already heard by the court must be taken to be evidence in the committal proceeding; and

to avoid any doubt, it is declared that the Justices Act 1886, section 104 must be complied with for the committal proceeding.