Dairy Produce Quotas Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Offences and criminal penalties

32.—(1) Any person who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement imposed on him by or under these Regulations or the Community legislation, or who, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing—

(a) fails to comply with a requirement made pursuant to regulation 28(1);

(b) in connection with these Regulations or the Community legislation—

(i) makes or causes to be made a statement, or uses or causes to be used a document, which he knows to be false in a material particular, or

(ii) recklessly makes or causes to be made a statement, or recklessly uses or causes to be used a document, which is false in a material particular;

or

(c) disposes of quota which he knows or might reasonably be expected to know is incorrectly registered in his name,

shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable—

(i) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both; or

(ii) on conviction on indictment, to a fine, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.

(2) The Department may, following any conviction under paragraph (1)(b) against which there is no subsisting right of appeal or further appeal, by notice served on the person to whose quota that conviction relates withdraw from him such quota as may reasonably be regarded by the Department as obtained by him by reason of the falsehood upon which the conviction was founded.

(3) A notice served under paragraph (2) must be served within the period of twelve months beginning with the first day on which such notice may be served.

(4) Where an offence under this regulation which has been committed by a body corporate 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 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 deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(5) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, the provisions of paragraph (1) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

(6) In this regulation “requirement” does not include a requirement or restriction imposed on the Department or a person acting as arbitrator, nor does it include any restriction or obligation in or under regulation 8(5) or (7), 10(1), 14(4) or 17(2).