99Disposal of property taken in search

1. Where any property is taken from the possession of any person as the result of a search carried out under this Part, the following provisions shall apply:

2. if the property is not required as evidence in proceedings in respect of an offence against this Act, or if the Court Martial or, as the case may be, a disciplinary officer finds that the property was not used in the commission of any such offence, it shall be returned to the person from whose possession it was taken or to such other person as may lawfully be entitled to it:
3. subject to section 87 and except as provided in section 52, any property found by the Court Martial or, as the case may be, a disciplinary officer to be used in the commission of an offence against this Act and appearing to that court or officer to belong to the offender or to be in his possession with the consent of its owner shall, if the Court or officer so directs, be forfeited to the Crown; and in that event the Chief of Defence Force shall cause the property to be sold either by public auction or private contract, and, on the completion of any such sale, shall cause the proceeds of the sale to be paid into a Crown Bank Account:
provided that if it would, apart from this section, be unlawful to sell the property, or if it appears to the Chief of Defence Force that the property has no value, he shall cause it to be destroyed or to be otherwise disposed of in such manner as he thinks fit.

4. An order of forfeiture made under subsection (1)(b) must be treated, for the purposes of—

5. Part 5A, as a punishment imposed on the offender; and
6. an appeal to the Court Martial Appeal Court, as part of the sentence imposed on the offender.