Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 8, to delete lines 16 to 50 and in page 9, to delete lines 1 to 17 and

substitute the following:

"(a) involved either—

(i) the possession by the defendant, whilst in the presence of one or more

other persons, of any article or item referred to in the Table to this

section, or

(ii) there being present in (or, in the case of a false registration plate

referred to in paragraph 8 of that Table, present in or affixed to) any

vehicle—

(I) the use of which appears connected with the relevant act, and

(II) of which the defendant and one or more other persons were

occupants on or about the date of commission of the relevant act,

any such article or item,

and

(b) those circumstances are such as give rise to a reasonable suspicion that the

defendant's state of mind was as aforesaid at the time of the relevant act's

commission.

Table

1. Any balaclava, boiler suit or other means of disguise or impersonation,

including any article of Garda uniform or any equipment supplied to a member

of the Garda Síochána or imitation thereof.

2. Any firearm (within the meaning of section 1 of the Firearms Act 1925),

ammunition for a firearm or device that appears to the ordinary observer so

realistic as to make it indistinguishable from a firearm.

3. Any knife to which section 9(1) of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act

1990 applies, weapon of offence within the meaning of section 10(2) of that Act

or weapon to which section 12 of that Act applies.

4. Any implement for burglary or other article or item for gaining access to any

premises or other structure without the permission of the owner or occupier

thereof, including any key or card that has been stolen or any access code

unlawfully procured.

5. Any plan of any premises or other structure unrelated to any lawful activity,

trade or purpose being pursued or engaged in by one or more of the persons

referred to in subsection (6)(a).

6. Any controlled drug (within the meaning of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977).

7. Any substantial amounts, in cash, of any currency unrelated to any lawful

activity, trade, transaction or purpose being pursued or engaged in by one or

more of the persons referred to in subsection (6)(a).

8. Any false vehicle registration plate, that is to say, any plate purporting to be a

plate for a mechanically propelled vehicle registered under section 131 of the

Finance Act 1992 and displaying an identification mark other than that duly

assigned by the Revenue Commissioners under Chapter IV of Part II of that Act

and regulations thereunder.

9. Any article or item for making a counterfeit of any currency note or coin or

making a counterfeit or otherwise for making a forgery of any credit or debit

card.

10. Any article or item for making copies of any work, being an article or item

of a design enabling, and held in circumstances indicating that it would likely be

used for, the making, on a substantial scale, of infringing copies (within the

meaning of Part II of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000) of the work

without the copyright owner's consent.

11. Any other article or item prescribed for the purposes of subsection (6).".".

This is an amendment to section 72(6) of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 as inserted by section 6 of the Bill providing for an amended participation offence. Subsection (6) provides that where a defendant is found in the possession of certain items, there shall be a presumption as to the required intention of the defendant to commit the offence of participation. Amendment No. 2 redrafts subsection (6) towards two ends. The first is to improve comprehension of the subsection by removing the list from the body of the text and appending it to the subsection in the form of a table. The second purpose of the amendment is to extend the list of items which can give rise to the specified presumption. The possession of the items listed would rightly give rise to some suspicion.

Possession of the following items is to be included in the subsection by way of this amendment - Garda uniform or Garda equipment; burglary tools or implements; false vehicle registration plates; counterfeiting equipment; and equipment which would facilitate copyright infringement. As can be seen from the section, possession of a balaclava, firearm, knife or an implement for burglary, are all items which an organised gang would have in its possession in the normal course of events.

See this speech in context