868. (1) The following provisions of this section apply where a company is charged, either alone or with some other person, with an indictable offence.

(2) The company may appear, at all stages of the proceedings, by a representative and the answer to any question put to a person charged with an indictable offence may be made on behalf of the company by that representative but if the company does not so appear it shall not be necessary to put the questions and the District Court may, notwithstanding its absence, send forward the company for trial and exercise any of its other powers under Part 1A of the Criminal Procedure Act 1967, including the power to take depositions.

(3) Any right of objection or election conferred upon the accused person by any enactment may be exercised on behalf of the company by its representative.

(4) Any plea that may be entered or signed by an accused person, whether before the District Court or before the trial judge, may be entered in writing on behalf of the company by its representative, and if the company does not appear by its representative or does appear but fails to enter any such plea, the trial shall proceed as though the company had duly entered a plea of not guilty.

(5) In this section, “representative” in relation to a company means a person duly appointed by the company to represent it for the purpose of doing any act or thing which the representative of a company is authorised by this section to do.

(6) A representative of a company shall not, by virtue only of being appointed for the purpose referred to in subsection (5), be qualified to act on behalf of the company before any court for any other purpose.

(7) A representative for the purpose of this section need not be appointed under the seal of the company.

(8) A statement in writing purporting to be signed by a managing director of the company or some other person (by whatever name called) who manages, or is one of the persons who manage, the affairs of the company, to the effect that the person named in the statement has been appointed as the representative of the company for the purposes of this section shall be admissible without further proof as evidence that that person has been so appointed.