183.— (1) A person is guilty of an offence if he or she possesses or controls any article in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable inference that he or she possesses or controls it for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation, facilitation or instigation of—

(a) an offence under section 15 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997,

(b) a drug trafficking offence within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1994,

(c) murder,

(d) murder to which section 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 1990 applies, or

(e) the common law offence of kidnapping to which section 2 of, and paragraph 4 of the Schedule to, the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Act 1976 applies.

(2) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that at the time of the alleged offence he or she did not possess or control the article concerned for a purpose specified in subsection (1).

(3) Where a person is charged with an offence under this section, no further proceedings in the matter (other than any remand in custody or on bail) may be taken except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

(5) In this section—

‘article’ means a substance, document or thing;

‘document’ includes—

(a) a map, plan, graph, drawing, photograph or record, or

(b) a reproduction in permanent legible form, by a computer or other means (including enlarging), of information in non-legible form;

‘information in non-legible form’ includes information on microfilm, magnetic tape or disk.]