Queensland Consolidated Acts

EVIDENCE ACT 1977 - SECT 93

93 Admissibility of documentary evidence as to facts in issue in criminal proceedings

(1) In any criminal proceeding where direct oral evidence of a fact would be admissible, any statement contained in a document and tending to establish that fact shall, subject to this part, be admissible as evidence of that fact if—

(a) the document is or forms part of a record relating to any trade or business and made in the course of that trade or business from information supplied (whether directly or indirectly) by persons who had, or may reasonably be supposed to have had, personal knowledge of the matters dealt with in the information they supplied; and

(b) the person who supplied the information recorded in the statement in question—

(i) is dead, or unfit by reason of the person’s bodily or mental condition to attend as a witness; or

(ii) is out of the State and it is not reasonably practicable to secure the person’s attendance; or

(iii) can not with reasonable diligence be found or identified; or

(iv) can not reasonably be supposed (having regard to the time which has lapsed since the person supplied the information and to all the circumstances) to have any recollection of the matters dealt with in the information the person supplied.

(2) In this section—

"business" includes any public transport, public utility or similar undertaking carried on in Queensland or elsewhere by the Crown (in right of the State of Queensland or any other right) or a statutory body.