Penalty for
falsification of
books.

Frauds by
officers of com-
panies which
have gone into
liquidation.

Liability where
proper accounts
not kept.

694

SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
takes in pawn or pledge or otherwise receives the property knowing
it to be pawned, pledged, or disposed of in such circumstances as
aforesaid shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. and on conviction
thereof liable—

(a) in England to be punished in the same way as if he had
received the property knowing it to have been obtained in
circumstances amounting to a misdemeanour;
in Scotland on conviction on indictment to penal servitude
for a period not exceeding seven years, or on summary
conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six
months or to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or
to both such imprisonment and fine.

(3) For the purposes of this section, the expression “director”
shall include any person in accordance with whose directions or
instructions the directors of a company have been accustomed to act.

272. If any director, manager or other officer, or contributory of
any company being wound up destroys, mutilates, alters, or falsifies
any books, papers, or securities, or makes or is privy to the making
of any false or fraudulent entry in any register, book of account, or
document belonging to the company with intent to defraud or deceive
any person, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be liable to
imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years. with or without
hard labour.

273. If any person, being at the time of the commission of the
alleged offence a director, manager or other officer of a company
which is subsequently ordered to be wound up by the court or
subsequently passes a resolution for voluntary winding up—

(a) has by false pretences or by means of any other fraud induced
any person to give credit to the company;
with intent to defraud creditors of the company, has made
or caused to be made any gift or transfer of or charge on, or
has caused or connived at the levying of any execution
against, the property of the company;
with intent to defraud creditors of the company, has con-

cealed or removed any part of the property of the company
since, or within two months before, the date of any un-
satisfied judgment or order for payment of monev obtained
against the company;
he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be liable on con-
viction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two
years, or on suminary conviction to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding twelve months.

(c)

274.—(1) If where a company is wound up it is shown that proper
books of account were not kept by the company throughout the
period of two years immediately preceding the commencement of the
winding up, every director, manager or other officer of the company
who was knowingly a party to or connived at the default of the
company shall, unless he shows that he acted honestly or that in the