182783-1931-Supplementary-Draft-Bill--Bankruptcy — Page 59

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Provided that, in determining for the purposes of this section whether any speculations were rash and hazardous, the financial position of the accused person at the time when he entered into the specula- tions shall be taken into consideration.

4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 59.

s. 157 (2).

(2) A prosecution shall not be instituted against any person under this section except by order of the court, nor where the receiving order in the bankruptcy is made within two years from the 1st day of January, 1932.

Bankrupt failing to keep proper accounts.

5, c. 7, s. 7.

136.--(1) Any person who has been adjudged bank- rupt or in respect of whose estate a receiving order has been made shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, if, 16 & 17 Geo having been engaged in any trade or business during any period in the two years immediately preceding the date of the presentation of the bankruptcy petition, he has not kept proper books of account throughout that period and throughout any further period in which he was so engaged between the date of the presentation of the petition and the date of the receiving order, or has not preserved all books of account so kept:

Provided that a person who has not kept or has not preserved such books of account shall not be convicted of an offence under this section-

(a) if his unsecured liabilities at the date of the receiving order did not exceed, in the case of a person who has not on any previous occasion in this Colony or elsewhere been adjudged bankrupt or made a composition or arrangement with his creditors, five thousand dollars, or in any other case one thousand dollars; or

(b) if he proves that in the circumstances in which he traded or carried on business the omission was honest and excusable.

4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 59,

s. 158 (2).

16 & 17 Geo 5, c. 7, s. 7.

(2) A prosecution shall not be instituted against any person under this section except by order of the court, nor where the receiving order in the bank- ruptcy is made within two years from the 1st day of January, 1932.

as

(3) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed not to have kept proper books of account if he has not kept such books or accounts are necessary to exhibit or explain his transactions and financial position in his trade or business, includ- ing a book or books containing entries from day to day in sufficient detail of all cash received and cash paid, and, where the trade or business has involved dealings in goods, statements of annual stocktakings, and (except in the case of goods sold by way of retail trade to the actual consumer) accounts of all goods sold and purchased showing the buyers and sellers thereof in sufficient detail to enable the goods and the buyers and sellers thereof to be identified. In the case of books or accounts kept in the Chinese language a person shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed not to have kept proper books of account if he has not kept such books or accounts as may be proved to be usual and necessary, for the purposes aforesaid, in the particular trade or business carried on by the debtor.

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