Section 54
Desertion
(1)
Every person subject to service law under this Act who—
(a)
deserts; or
(b)
persuades, endeavours to persuade, procures or attempts to procure any person subject to service law under this Act to desert, shall, on conviction by court-martial, be liable to imprisonment or any less punishment provided by this Act:
Provided that a person shall not be liable to be imprisoned for more than two years unless—
(i)
if the offence was against paragraph (a), he was on active service or under orders for active service at the time when it was committed; or
(ii)
if the offence was against paragraph (b), the person in relation to whom it was committed was on active service or under orders for active service at that time.
Armed Forces 59
(2)
For the purposes of this Act a person deserts who—
(a)
leaves His Majesty’s Service, or when it is his duty to do so, fails to join or rejoin His Majesty’s Service, with (in either case) the intention, either subsisting at the time of the leaving or failure or formed thereafter, of remaining permanently absent from his duty;
(b)
absents himself without leave with intent to avoid serving at any place overseas or to avoid service or any particular service when before the enemy;
(c)
in the case of a sailor having been warned that his vessel is under sailing orders, is absent without proper authority, with the intention of missing that vessel; or
(d)
being an officer enlists in or enters any of the armed forces without having been relieved of his commission, or being a serviceman enlists in or enters any of the armed forces without having been discharged from his previous enlistment, and references in this Act to desertion shall be construed accordingly.
(3)
In addition to or in lieu of any punishment provided by subsection (1), the court-martial by whom a serviceman is convicted of desertion may direct that the whole or any part of his service previous to the period as respects which he is convicted of having been a deserter shall be forfeited.
Absence without leave