Section 59 - Knife dealers’ licences: further provision
150.This section makes a number of amendments to the provisions of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 to accommodate the new licensing provisions inserted by section 58.
151.Section 59(2) disapplies section 6 (powers of entry to and search of unlicensed premises) of the 1982 Act, as alternative provision has been made in new sections 27E to 27H.
152.Section 59(3) increases the penalties for offences set out in section 7 of the 1982 Act:
Paragraph (a) provides that dealing without a knife dealer’s licence is an offence punishable on summary conviction by imprisonment for up to 12 months or a fine up to the statutory maximum or both. The statutory maximum is currently £5,000, though section 48 of the Criminal Proceedings etc. Reform (Scotland) Act 2007 provides for it be increased to £10,000. The maximum penalty, on conviction on indictment, is imprisonment for up to 2 years or an unlimited fine or both. Paragraph (b) disapplies the general section 7(1) offence which is triable only summarily and for which the maximum penalty is a fine of level 4 on the standard scale (currently £2,500).
Paragraph (c) provides that a licence holder guilty of failure to comply with a condition attached to a knife dealer’s licence is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5,000) rather than the usual maximum of level 3.
Paragraph (d) provides that a person who, in making an application for a knife dealer’s licence, knowingly or recklessly makes a false statement is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale rather than the usual maximum of level 4.
