CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE ACT 141 Written notice to secure attendance of accused in magistrates court (1) If a person is alleged to have committed an offence and a peace officer, on reasonable grounds, believes that a magistrates court, on convicting such accused of that offence, will impose a fine not exceeding level three, the peace officer may, whether or not the accused is in custody, hand to the accused a written notice in the form prescribed which shall— (a) give such particulars as are necessary for giving reasonable information of the allegation: Provided that it shall not be necessary to cite the provision of the enactment under which he is charged; and (b) specify the full name and address of the accused; and (c) call upon the accused to appear at a place and on a date and at a time specified in the written notice to answer a charge of having committed the offence in question; and (d) contain an endorsement to the effect that the accused may, in terms of section three hundred and fifty-six, on or before such date as may be specified, admit his guilt in respect of the offence in question and pay a fine fixed in respect thereof without appearing in court; and (e) contain a certificate under the hand of the peace officer that he has handed the original of such written notice to the accused and that he has explained to the accused the import thereof. [Subsection amended by s. 4 of Act No. 22 of 2001.] (2) If the accused is in custody, the effect of a written notice handed to him in terms of subsection (1) shall be that he be released forthwith from custody. (3) A peace officer who hands a person a written notice in terms of subsection (1) shall forthwith forward a duplicate original of the written notice to the clerk of the court at which the accused is, in terms of the notice, called upon to appear. (4) The provisions of subsections (4) and (5) of section one hundred and forty shall apply, mutatis mutandis, in regard to a written notice handed in terms of subsection (1) to an accused who has not, on or before the date specified in paragraph (d) of subsection (1), admitted his guilt in respect of the offence in question and paid the fine fixed in respect thereof in terms of section three hundred and fifty-six as if the written notice were a summons duly served on the person concerned. (5) The production to the court by the prosecutor of the duplicate original referred to in subsection (3) shall be prima facie proof— (a) that the original thereof was handed to the accused; and (b) that the accused has not, on or before the date specified in paragraph (d) of subsection (1), admitted his guilt in respect of the offence in question and paid the fine fixed in respect thereof in terms of section three hundred and fifty-six. 142 Warning to appear in magistrates court (1) Notwithstanding anything in section one hundred and forty, it shall be competent for a magistrates court to obtain the presence of any person to be charged with any offence by means of a warning to such person. (2) In all summary trials in a magistrates court without summons, the charge shall be entered upon a form called the “Charge Sheet”, containing the name of every accused person, with the name of the offence with which he is charged and the necessary particulars thereof concisely stated. (3) At the trial the charge drawn in terms of subsection (2) shall be read out to the person charged, who shall be called upon to plead thereto, and his plea shall be recorded thereon. (4) The accused or his legal representative shall be entitled at all reasonable times to inspect the charge as stated on the charge sheet. (5) When a person under the age of eighteen years has been arrested by a peace officer for the purpose of being brought before a court or has been warned to appear before a court on a 68