United Kingdom Statutory Instruments

(a) This Order shall extend to the territories listed in Schedule 1 to this Order.

(b) In the application of this Order to any of the said territories the expression "the Territory" in this Order means that territory.

(c) Article 6 of this Order shall apply to the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as set out in Schedule 2 to this Order.

(a) if tried on Information before the Senior Judge's Court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years, or to a fine, or to both; or

(b) if tried before the Judge's Court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding £5,000 or its equivalent, or to both.

     2. Any person who commits an offence under article 4(1) or (2), or paragraph 5(b) or (d) of Schedule 3 to this Order is guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both.

     3. Any person who commits an offence under paragraph (5)(a) or (c) of Schedule 3 to this Order is guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding £5,000 or its equivalent, or to both.

     4. Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under this Order, and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

     5. No proceedings for an offence under this Order shall be instituted in the Territory except by or with the consent of the principal public officer of the Teritory having responsibility for criminal prosecutions:

Provided that this paragraph shall not prevent the arrest, or the issue or execution of a warrant for the arrest, of any person in respect of such an offence, or the remand in custody or on bail of any person charged with such an offence, notwithstanding that the necessary consent to the institution of proceedings for the offence has not been obtained.

(a) that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that an offence under this Order or, with respect to any of the matters regulated by this Order, an offence under any enactment relating to customs has been or is being committed and that evidence of the commission of the offence is to be found on any premises specified in the information, or in any vehicle, ship or aircraft so specified; or

(b) that any documents which ought to have been produced under paragraph 1 of this Schedule and have not been produced are to be found on any such premises or in any such vehicle, ship or aircraft,

he may grant a search warrant authorising any police officer or constable, together with any other persons named in the warrant and any other police officers or constables, to enter the premises specified in the information or, as the case may be, any premises upon which the vehicle, ship or aircraft so specified may be, at any time within one month from the date of the warrant and to search the premises, or as the case may be, the vehicle, ship or aircraft.

    (2) Any authorised person who has entered any premises or any vehicle, ship or aircraft in accordance with sub-paragraph (1) above may do any or all of the following things:

(a) inspect and search those premises or the vehicle, ship or aircraft for any material which he has reasonable grounds to believe may be evidence in relation to an offence referred to in this paragraph;

(b) seize anything on the premises or on the vehicle, ship or aircraft which he has reasonable grounds to believe is evidence in relation to an offence referred to in this paragraph;

(c) seize anything on the premises or on the vehicle, ship or aircraft which he has reasonable grounds to believe are required to be produced in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Schedule; or

(d) seize anything that is necessary to be seized in order prevent it being concealed, lost, damaged, altered or destroyed.

    (3) Any information required in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) above which is contained in a computer and is accessible from the premises or from any vehicle, ship or aircraft must be produced in a form in which it can be taken away and in which it is visible and legible.

    (4) A police officer or constable lawfully on the premises or on the vehicle, ship or aircraft by virtue of a warrant issued under sub-paragraph (1) above may:

(a) search any person whom he has reasonable grounds to believe may be in the act of committing an offence referred to in this paragraph; and

(b) seize anything he finds in a search referred to in paragraph (a) above, if he has reasonable grounds to believe that it is evidence of an offence referred to in this paragraph:

Provided that no person shall be searched in pursuance of this sub-paragraph except by a person of the same sex.

    (5) Where, by virtue of this paragraph a person is empowered to enter any premises, vehicle, ship or aircraft he may use such force as is reasonably necessary for that purpose.

    (6) Any documents or articles of which possession is taken under this paragraph may be retained for a period of three months or, if within that period there are commenced any proceedings for such an offence as aforesaid to which they are relevant, until the conclusion of those proceedings.

     3. A person authorised by the Governor to exercise any power for the purposes of this Schedule shall, if requested to do so, produce evidence of his authority before exercising that power.

     4. No information furnished or document produced (including any copy of an extract made of any document produced) by a person in pursuance of a request made under this Schedule and no document seized under paragraph 2(2) of this Schedule shall be disclosed except:

(a) with the consent of the person by whom the information was furnished or the document was produced or the person from whom the document was seized:

Provided that a person who has obtained information or is in the possession of a document only in his capacity as servant or agent of another person may not give consent for the purposes of this sub-paragraph but such consent may instead be given by any person who is entitled to that information or to possession of that document in his own right; or

(b) to any person who would have been empowered under this Schedule to request that it be furnished or produced or to any person holding or acting in any office under or in the service of the Crown in respect of the Government of the United Kingdom, or under or in the service of the Government of the Isle of Man, or under or in the service of the States of Guernsey or Alderney or the Chief Pleas of Sark; or as the case may be, the States of Jersey; or under or in the service of the Government of any territory to which this Order extends; or

(c) on the authority of the Secretary of State, to any organ of the United Nations, or to any person in the service of the United Nations, or to the Government of any other country for the purpose of assisting the United Nations or that Government in securing compliance with or detecting evasion of measures in relation to Liberia decided upon by the Security Council of the United Nations; or

(d) with a view to the institution of, or otherwise for the purposes of, any proceedings for an offence under this Order or, with respect to any of the matters regulated by this Order, for an offence under any enactment relating to customs.

     5. Any person who - 

(a) without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within a reasonable time) to comply with any request made under this Schedule by any person who is empowered to make it; or

(b) furnishes any information or produces any document which to his knowledge is false in a material particular or recklessly furnishes any information or produces any document which is false in a material particular, to such a person exercising his powers under this Schedule; or

(c) otherwise wilfully obstructs any person in the exercise of his powers under this Schedule; or

(d) with intent to evade the provisions of this Schedule, destroys, mutilates, defaces, secretes or removes any document,

shall be guilty of an offence under this Order.