Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) In this Act unless
the contrary intention appears —
accused means a person charged with an offence in
an official prosecution;
appeal means an appeal against a decision of a
summary court given in an official prosecution;
appeal court means a court hearing an appeal
against a decision of a summary court given in an official prosecution;
costs means any expenses that —
(a) are
properly incurred by an accused in an official prosecution; and
(b) are
due and payable, or paid, by the accused to another person or as court fees;
court includes a summary court and an appeal
court;
official prosecution means proceedings in a
summary court against a person charged with an offence by a public official
acting or purporting to act by virtue of his office, and includes proceedings
on appeal therefrom;
public official means a Minister of the Crown, a
person employed in the Public Service of the State, a member of the Police
Force, or a person employed by a local government or any other statutory body
and includes any person acting as agent of or under the instructions of such a
person or body;
section means a section of this Act; and
summary court means the Magistrates Court or the
Children’s Court.
(2) An accused —
(a)
subject to paragraph (c), is successful if —
(i)
he is acquitted of the charge, other than on account of
mental impairment;
(ii)
he is discharged from the charge under section 128(2) or
(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2004 ;
(iii)
the charge is dismissed for want of prosecution; or
(iv)
his conviction of the charge is set aside;
(b) is partly
successful if —
(i)
he is convicted of a lesser offence than that with which
he was charged; or
(ii)
he is charged with several offences in the one
prosecution notice and is successful in respect of one or some of them;
(c) is
not successful if the charge is of an indictable offence and is dismissed for
want of prosecution by the summary court —
(i)
if section 5 of The Criminal Code applies to the charge
— before the summary court decides under that section that the charge is
to be tried on indictment; or
(ii)
otherwise — before the summary court commits him
for trial or sentence on the charge.
[Section 4 amended: No. 49 of 1988 s. 55; No. 14
of 1996 s. 4; No. 59 of 2004 s. 141; No. 84 of 2004 s. 56, 80, 82 and 86; No.
10 of 2023 s. 412.]