CHILDREN’S PROTECTION AND ADOPTION ACT (as amended at 01 December 2002) (2)8 If any person refuses to return a pupil, child or young person to a certified institution or training institute, place of safety, remand home or custody to which such pupil, child or young person has been committed, upon expiration of any period of leave of absence granted to such pupil, child or young person from such certified institution or training institute, place of safety, remand home or custody, such person shall be deemed to have prevented such pupil, child or young person from returning to such certified institution or training institute, place of safety, remand home or custody. 44 Imprisonment of absconding pupils (1)52 If any pupil of the age of eighteen years or over absconds from any training institute he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months. (2) When the pupil has undergone any sentence imposed upon him in terms of subsection (1), the Director may order that he shall be returned to the training institute or that he shall be discharged. 45 Inspection of children and young persons (1) For the inspection of certified institutions, training institutes, institutions, children and young persons, there shall be such number of inspectors as may be required, whose offices shall be public offices and shall form part of the Public Service. (2) Any inspector appointed in terms of subsection (1) shall have power to enter any certified institution, training institute or institution or the dwelling of any person in whose custody a child or young person has been placed in terms of this Act or any other enactment and to inspect any such certified institution, training institute, institution or dwelling and the books and documents appertaining thereto and any pupil, child or young person therein. (3) The powers conferred by subsection (2) upon an inspector may be exercised by any magistrate within his province and by any probation officer who has been generally or in any case specially authorized thereto by the Director. (4) Refusal by the management of any certified institution, training institute or institution or by the occupant of any dwelling to allow a person exercising his powers in terms of this section to enter and inspect those premises or to have access to any pupil, child or young person shall be a reasonable ground within the meaning of section fourteen for suspecting that an offence specified in the First Schedule is being or has been committed upon or in connection with a pupil, child or young person in those premises. (5)53 Any person who obstructs any other person in the exercise of his powers in terms of this section or who fails to produce any pupil, child or young person or book or document whose production is demanded in terms of this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment. 46 Probation officers (1) There shall be such number of probation officers as may be required, whose offices shall be public offices and shall form part of the Public Service, and whose functions shall be— (a) to inquire into and report to any court or magistrate upon the character and environment of any minor on trial or undergoing a preparatory examination or in respect of whom an inquiry is being or is intended to be conducted in terms of section nineteen, and into and upon the causes and circumstances contributing to the delinquency of such minor: Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall be regarded as varying the law in force governing the admissibility of evidence in criminal cases; 8 Subsection amended by s. 48 of Act 23/2001. 26