2. In these Regulations—
“the 2010 Act” means the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act (Northern Ireland) 2010;
“hiring agreement” means an agreement for the hire of a vehicle being an agreement which contains such particulars as may be prescribed under Article 71 of the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(1);
“immobilisation notice” has the meaning given in regulation 5(3);
“licence” means an operator’s licence (whether standard or restricted) as defined in section 1(1) of the 2010 Act;
“owner” means, in relation to a vehicle or trailer which has been detained in accordance with regulation 3—
in the case of a vehicle which at the time of its detention was not hired from a vehicle-hire firm under a hiring agreement but was registered under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994(2), the person who can show to the satisfaction of an authorised person that at the time of its detention that person was the lawful owner (whether or not that person was the person in whose name the vehicle was registered);
in the case of a vehicle or trailer which at the time of its detention was hired from a vehicle-hire firm under a hiring agreement, the vehicle-hire firm; or
in the case of any other vehicle or trailer, the person who can show to the satisfaction of an authorised person that at the time of its detention that person was the lawful owner;
“release” in relation to a vehicle means release from an immobilisation device;
“vehicle” has the same meaning as “goods vehicle” in section 58(1) of the 2010 Act but excludes those vehicles specified in section 1(2) of that Act; and
“vehicle-hire firm” has the same meaning as in Article 71 of the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.