Queensland Consolidated Acts

CRIMINAL CODE 1899 - SECT 651

651 Court may decide summary offences if a person is charged on indictment

(1) If an indictment has been presented against a person before a court, the court may also, subject to section 652 (2) to (4) and subsection (2) , hear and decide summarily any charge of a summary offence that has been laid against the person.

(2) The court must not hear and decide the summary offence unless—

(a) the court considers it appropriate to do so; and

(b) the accused person is represented by a lawyer; and

(c) the Crown and the accused consent to the court so doing; and

(d) the accused person states his or her intention of entering a plea of guilty to the charge; and

(e) the complaint or bench charge sheet for the offence, or a copy, is before the court, whether or not returnable before another court.

(3) Subject to this section, the practices of the court and the express provisions of this Code relating to taking a plea on an indictment apply to the taking of a plea to the charge in a complaint or bench charge sheet.

(4) On convicting the person of the summary offence, the court may make any orders in relation to the conviction a Magistrates Court may make.

(5) The power to make rules for the court extends to the making of rules in relation to the practice and procedure to be applied in the hearing and decision summarily of summary offences by the court.

(6) If the court hears and decides a charge summarily, the court has jurisdiction despite the time that has elapsed from the time when the matter of complaint of the charge arose.

(7) In this section—

"summary offence" means—

(a) a simple or regulatory offence; or

(b) an offence for which—

(i) proceedings for a charge of the offence may be taken summarily under the Drugs Misuse Act 1986 ; and

(ii) the prosecution has made an election under section 118 of that Act; or

(c) an indictable offence against this Code if, under section 552A , the prosecution has elected to have a charge for the offence heard and decided summarily; or

(d) an indictable offence against this Code if, under section 552BA , the charge for the offence must be heard and decided summarily.