16.—(1) In this Part “principal offender”, for the purposes of sections 17 and 18, means the person who has stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained the property alleged to have been handled or possessed, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly.

(2) For the purposes of this Part, a person is reckless if he or she disregards a substantial risk that the property handled is stolen, and for those purposes “substantial risk” means a risk of such a nature and degree that, having regard to the circumstances in which the person acquired the property and the extent of the information then available to him or her, its disregard involves culpability of a high degree.

(3) This Part is without prejudice to section 31 (as substituted by section 21 of this Act) of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994.