(1) An application for
the issue of a warrant may be made either personally or by telephone.
(2) The grounds of an
application for a warrant must be verified by affidavit.
(3) An application for
a warrant cannot be made by telephone unless in the opinion of the applicant a
warrant is urgently required and there is not enough time to make the
application personally.
(4) If an application
for a warrant is made by telephone—
(a) the
applicant must inform the magistrate of—
(i)
the applicant's name; and
(ii)
the applicant's rank or position title (as the case
requires); and
(iii)
the enforcement agency of which the applicant is a
member,
and the magistrate, on receiving that information, is entitled to assume,
without further inquiry, that the applicant is an authorised officer; and
(b) the
applicant must inform the magistrate of the purpose for which the warrant is
required and the grounds on which it is sought; and
(c) if
it appears to the magistrate from the information given by the applicant that
there are proper grounds to issue a warrant, the magistrate must inform the
applicant of the facts that justify, in the magistrate's opinion, the issue of
the warrant, and must not issue the warrant unless the applicant undertakes to
make an affidavit verifying those facts; and
(d) if
the applicant gives such an undertaking, the magistrate may then make out and
sign a warrant, noting on the warrant the facts that justify, in the
magistrate's opinion, the issue of the warrant; and
(e) the
warrant is taken to have been issued, and comes into force, when signed by the
magistrate; and
(f) the
magistrate must inform the applicant of the terms of the warrant; and
(g) the
applicant must fill out and sign a warrant form (the duplicate warrant)
that—
(i)
sets out the name of the magistrate who issued the
original and the terms of the warrant; and
(ii)
complies with any other requirements prescribed by
regulation; and
(h) the
applicant must, as soon as practicable after the issue of the warrant, forward
to the magistrate an affidavit verifying the facts referred to in
paragraph (c) and a copy of the duplicate warrant.
(5) A magistrate by
whom a warrant is issued must file the warrant, or a copy of the warrant, and
the affidavit verifying the grounds on which the application for the warrant
was made, in the Magistrates Court.