Criminal Code

Marginal note:Trader failing to keep accounts

• 402 (1) Every one who, being a trader or in business,

  • (a) is indebted in an amount exceeding one thousand dollars,

  • (b) is unable to pay his creditors in full, and

  • (c) has not kept books of account that, in the ordinary course of the trade or business in which he is engaged, are necessary to exhibit or explain his transactions,

  is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

• Marginal note:Saving

  (2) No person shall be convicted of an offence under this section

  • (a) where, to the satisfaction of the court or judge, he

    • (i) accounts for his losses, and

    • (ii) shows that his failure to keep books was not intended to defraud his creditors; or

  • (b) where his failure to keep books occurred at a time more than five years prior to the day on which he was unable to pay his creditors in full.