Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015

69 Acceptable forms of payment for metal

After section 33 of the 1982 Act insert—

“33A Acceptable forms of payment for metal

(1) A metal dealer or an itinerant metal dealer may pay for metal only by a method of payment specified in subsection (2).

(2) The methods of payment are—

(a) by means of a cheque which under section 81A of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 is not transferable, or

(b) by electronic transfer of funds to a bank or building society account in the name of the payee.

(3) If a metal dealer or an itinerant metal dealer pays for metal otherwise than in accordance with subsection (1), the dealer and each of the persons listed in subsection (4) (if any) commit an offence.

(4) The persons are—

(a) in a case of payment being made by a metal dealer at a place of business of the dealer, the person with day to day management of the place,

(b) in any case, any person who, acting on behalf of the metal dealer or the itinerant metal dealer, makes the payment.

(5) It is a defence for a metal dealer, an itinerant metal dealer or a person described in subsection (4)(a) who is charged with an offence under this section to prove that the dealer or, as the case may be, person—

(a) made arrangements to ensure that the payment was to be made only in accordance with subsection (1), and

(b) took all reasonable steps to ensure that those arrangements were complied with.

(6) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(7) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations—

(a) amend subsection (2) so as to add, amend or remove methods of payment, and

(b) make such consequential modification of section 33B or 33C(3) as they consider appropriate.

(8) Regulations under subsection (7) are subject to the affirmative procedure.

(9) In this section, “place of business” means a place of business operated by a metal dealer in the ordinary course of that dealer’s business as a metal dealer.

33B Acceptable forms of payment: meaning of “bank or building society account”

(1) In section 33A(2)(b), “bank or building society account” means an account held with a bank or a building society.

(2) For the purposes of subsections (1) and (4)—

(a) “bank” means an authorised deposit-taker that has its head office or a branch in the United Kingdom, and

(b) “building society” has the same meaning as in the Building Societies Act 1986.

(3) In subsection (2)(a), “authorised deposit-taker” means—

(a) a person who has permission to accept deposits under Part 4A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (but see subsection (4) for exclusions),

(b) an EEA firm of the kind mention in paragraph 5(b) of Schedule 3 to that Act that has permission under paragraph 15 of that Schedule (as a result of qualifying for authorisation under paragraph 12(1) of that Schedule).

(4) The reference in subsection (3)(a) to a person who has permission to accept deposits under Part 4A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 does not include—

(a) a building society,

(b) a society registered as a credit union under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 or the Credit Unions (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 (S.I. 1985/1205 (N.I. 12)),

(c) a friendly society within the meaning given by section 116 of the Friendly Societies Act 1992, or

(d) an insurance company within the meaning of section 275 of the Finance Act 2004.”.