Act 9 20. Habitual Offenders. Penal Code Act 2008 (1) Whenever any person is sentenced to imprisonment for a term of more than six months for an offence committed under this Act, and the said convicted person has, on at least, three previous occasions been sentenced to imprisonment, the Magistrate or Court may, if in his, her or its opinion the circumstances justify so doing, give such person a warning by reading out and explaining to him or her the relevant parts of this section and such warning shall be recorded with the sentence. (2) If any person who has been warned is subsequently convicted of any offence which may subject him or her to imprisonment, and such offence is committed more than one year after his or her release from serving the sentence in respect of which he or she was warned, the Court or Magistrate when sentencing him or her shall give him or her a second warning. (3) If any person who was warned is convicted of an offence which may subject him or her to imprisonment, and such offence is committed within one year of his or her release from serving the sentence in respect of which he or she was warned, or if any person who was twice warned, is convicted of any such offence at any time after the second warning, he or she shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term that may extend to ten years. (4) No person who was warned shall be tried for any offence which may subject him or her to imprisonment except under this Act, by a Magistrate of the First Class, nonsummarily, or by a higher Court, and in awarding sentence under subsection (3), above, such Magistrate or Court shall not be subject to the limits of his or her or its powers set forth by the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, 2008. 32