New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT 1986 - SECT 16

16 Certain defects do not affect indictment

(1) An indictment is not bad, insufficient, void, erroneous or defective on any of the following grounds--

(a) for the improper insertion or omission of the words "as appears by the record", "with force and arms", "against the peace", "against the form of the statute" or "feloniously",

(b) for want of an averment of any matter unnecessary to be proved or necessarily implied,

(c) for want of a proper or perfect venue or a proper or formal conclusion,

(d) for want of any additional accused person or for any imperfection relating to any additional accused person,

(d1) if the indictment is for an offence under the Crimes Act 1900 relating to the destruction or loss of a foetus, regardless of the gestational age of the foetus--for stating the name of the foetus,

(e) for want of any statement of the value or price of any matter or thing, or the amount of damage or injury, if such value, price or amount is not of the essence of the offence,

(f) for designating any person by the name of his or her office, or other descriptive appellation, instead of by his or her proper name,

(g) except where time is an essential ingredient, for omitting to state the time at which an offence was committed, for stating the time wrongly or for stating the time imperfectly,

(h) for stating an offence to have been committed on a day subsequent to the finding of the indictment, on an impossible day or on a day that never happened,

(i) if the indictment was signed by an Australian legal practitioner who has been instructed to prosecute the proceedings to which the indictment relates on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions--for failure by the Director to authorise the Australian legal practitioner by order in writing under section 126 (2) to sign indictments for and on behalf of the Director.

(2) No objection may be taken, or allowed, to any indictment by which criminal proceedings (including committal proceedings) in the Local Court or for any other offence that is to be dealt with summarily are commenced, or to any warrant issued for the purposes of any such proceedings, on the grounds of--

(a) any alleged defect in it in substance or in form, or

(b) any variance between it and the evidence adduced at the proceedings for the offence charged in the indictment or warrant.

Note : An adjournment may be obtained under section 40 where there is a variance between the evidence adduced and the offence charged in the application or order.