diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityService.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityService.java
index fee372974f..d9edfc905e 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityService.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityService.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ import org.alfresco.service.cmr.security.PersonService.PersonInfo;
 import org.alfresco.service.namespace.QName;
 import org.alfresco.util.Pair;
 import org.alfresco.util.ScriptPagingDetails;
+import org.mozilla.javascript.Scriptable;
 
 /**
  * Script object representing the authority service.
@@ -223,6 +224,88 @@ public class ScriptAuthorityService extends BaseScopableProcessorExtension
         return makeScriptGroups(authorities, paging, sortBy, serviceRegistry, this.getScope());
     }
     
+    /**
+     * Retreives groups matching the given filter from all zones.
+     * 
+     * NOTE: If the filter is null, an empty string or * all groups found will be returned.
+     * If the filter starts with * or contains a ? character results returned could be inconsistent.
+     * 
+     * @param filter Pattern to filter groups by
+     * @param paging Paging details
+     * @return Array of mathcing groups
+     * @since 4.0
+     */
+    public ScriptGroup[] getGroups(String filter, ScriptPagingDetails paging)
+    {
+        return getGroupsInZone(filter, null, paging, null);
+    }
+    
+    /**
+     * Retreives groups matching the given filter from all zones.
+     * 
+     * NOTE: If the filter is null, an empty string or * all groups found will be returned.
+     * If the filter starts with * or contains a ? character results returned could be inconsistent.
+     * 
+     * @param filter Pattern to filter groups by
+     * @param paging Paging details
+     * @param sortBy Field to sort by, can be <code>shortName</code> or <code>displayName</code> otherwise 
+     *        the results are ordered by the authorityName
+     * @return Array of mathcing groups
+     * @since 4.0
+     */
+    public ScriptGroup[] getGroups(String filter, ScriptPagingDetails paging, String sortBy)
+    {
+        return getGroupsInZone(filter, null, paging, sortBy);
+    }
+    
+    /**
+     * Retreives groups matching the given filter from the given zone.
+     * 
+     * NOTE: If the filter is null, an empty string or * all groups found will be returned.
+     * If the filter starts with * or contains a ? character results returned could be inconsistent.
+     * 
+     * @param filter Pattern to filter groups by
+     * @param zone The zone in which to search for groups
+     * @param paging Paging details
+     * @param sortBy Field to sort by, can be <code>shortName</code>, <code>displayName</code> or
+     *        <code>authorityName</code>, the default is displayName
+     * @return Array of mathcing groups
+     * @since 4.0
+     */
+    public ScriptGroup[] getGroupsInZone(String filter, String zone, ScriptPagingDetails paging, String sortBy)
+    {
+        // reset filter if necessary
+        if (filter != null && (filter.length() == 0 || filter.equals("*")))
+        {
+            filter = null;
+        }
+        
+        if (filter != null && (filter.startsWith("*") || filter.indexOf("?") != -1))
+        {
+            // contains and ? wildcard queries are not supported by canned queries so use search
+            return searchGroupsInZone(filter, zone, paging, sortBy);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                // for backwards compatibility request a total count of found items, once the UI can deal with
+                // results that do not specify the total number of results this can be removed
+                paging.setRequestTotalCountMax(10000);
+                
+                // get the paged results (NOTE: we can only sort by display name currently)
+                PagingResults<String> groups = authorityService.getAuthorities(AuthorityType.GROUP, zone, filter, true, true, paging);
+                
+                // create ScriptGroup array from paged results
+                return makeScriptGroups(groups, paging, serviceRegistry, this.getScope());
+            }
+            catch (UnknownAuthorityException e)
+            {
+                return new ScriptGroup[] {};
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    
 	/**
 	 * Get a group given its short name
 	 * @param shortName, the shortName of the group
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityServiceTest.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityServiceTest.java
index 906ebdf120..5b5928ca48 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityServiceTest.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptAuthorityServiceTest.java
@@ -225,6 +225,34 @@ public class ScriptAuthorityServiceTest extends TestCase
     {
     }
     
+    public void testGetGroups()
+    {
+        // find all the groups that start with "test"
+        ScriptGroup[] groups = service.getGroupsInZone("test", AuthorityService.ZONE_APP_DEFAULT, new ScriptPagingDetails(10,0), null);
+        assertEquals(3, groups.length);
+        
+        // find a certain group
+        groups = service.getGroupsInZone(GROUP_A, AuthorityService.ZONE_APP_DEFAULT, new ScriptPagingDetails(10,0), null);
+        assertEquals(1, groups.length);
+        
+        // make sure a contains query falls back to lucene
+        groups = service.getGroupsInZone("*Group", AuthorityService.ZONE_APP_DEFAULT, new ScriptPagingDetails(10,0), null);
+        assertEquals(3, groups.length);
+        
+        // make sure a ? wildcard query falls back to lucene
+        groups = service.getGroupsInZone("t?st", AuthorityService.ZONE_APP_DEFAULT, new ScriptPagingDetails(10,0), null);
+        assertEquals(3, groups.length);
+        
+        // make sure we support getting all results
+        groups = service.getGroupsInZone("*", AuthorityService.ZONE_APP_DEFAULT, new ScriptPagingDetails(10,0), null);
+        assertEquals(5, groups.length);
+        
+        // ensure paging works, query for all results but just return 1 per page
+        groups = service.getGroupsInZone("test", AuthorityService.ZONE_APP_DEFAULT, new ScriptPagingDetails(2,2), "displayName");
+        assertEquals(1, groups.length);
+        assertEquals(GROUP_C, groups[0].getShortName());
+    }
+    
     public void testFindGroups()
     {
        // Put one group inside another
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptGroup.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptGroup.java
index 52b6311e94..d43602dbd0 100644
--- a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptGroup.java
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authority/script/ScriptGroup.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.TreeSet;
 
+import org.alfresco.query.PagingResults;
 import org.alfresco.repo.jscript.ScriptNode;
 import org.alfresco.service.ServiceRegistry;
 import org.alfresco.service.cmr.repository.NodeRef;
@@ -611,4 +612,32 @@ public class ScriptGroup implements Authority, Serializable
         }
         return groups;
     }
+    
+    /**
+     * Returns an array of ScriptGroup objects representing the given paged results.
+     * 
+     * @param groups The paged results
+     * @param paging Object representing the paging details
+     * @param serviceRegistry
+     * @param scope
+     * @return Array of ScriptGroup objects
+     * 
+     * @since 4.0
+     */
+    public static ScriptGroup[] makeScriptGroups(PagingResults<String> pagedGroups, ScriptPagingDetails paging, 
+                ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry, Scriptable scope)
+    {
+        // set the total on the paging object
+        paging.setTotalItems(pagedGroups);
+        
+        // retrive the page of results and create a ScriptGroup for each one
+        List<String> groupNames = pagedGroups.getPage();
+        ScriptGroup[] groups = new ScriptGroup[groupNames.size()];
+        for (int i=0; i<groups.length; i++)
+        {
+            groups[i] = new ScriptGroup(groupNames.get(i), serviceRegistry, scope);
+        }
+        
+        return groups;
+    }
 }