Production orders against financial institution to produce material relating to drug trafficking or criminal conduct
26A.—(1) The Attorney-General or any person duly authorised by him in writing may, for the purpose of an investigation into a drug trafficking offence or a serious offence, as the case may be, apply to the High Court for an order under subsection (2) in relation to any particular material or material of a particular description.
(2) The High Court may, if on such an application it is satisfied that the conditions referred to in subsection (3) are fulfilled, make an order that the financial institution which appears to the Court to be in possession of the material to which the application relates shall —
(a)
produce the material to the Attorney-General or the person duly authorised by him for the Attorney-General or such person to take away; or
(b)
give the Attorney-General or the person duly authorised by him access to the material,
within a reasonable period, but not less than 7 days, as the order may specify.
(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (2) are —
(a)
that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that a specified person has carried on or has benefited from drug trafficking or criminal conduct, as the case may be;
(b)
that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the material to which the application relates —
(i)
is likely to be of substantial value (whether by itself or together with other material) to the investigation for the purpose of which the application is made; and
(ii)
does not consist of or include items subject to legal privilege; and
(c)
that there are reasonable grounds for believing that it is in the public interest to produce the material to which the application relates.
(4) A financial institution which complies with an order made under subsection (2) shall not be treated as being in breach of any restriction upon the disclosure of information or material imposed by law, contract or rules of professional conduct.
(5) No action shall lie against a financial institution which in good faith produces materials or gives access to materials relating to the account of its customer by reason of that financial institution having produced or given access to the materials in compliance with an order made against it under subsection (2) or any act done or omitted to be done in relation to any funds, investment or property in the account of that customer in consequence of the production of or access to those materials.
(6) The proceedings for an application for a production order under this section shall be heard in camera.
(7) In this section, “items subject to legal privilege” has the same meaning as in section 33(2).