London Local Authorities Act 2007

13 Advertising: seizure

(1) If an authorised officer or a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that a person has committed an advertising offence in Greater London and the conditions of subsection (2) below apply, the authorised officer or constable may seize any relevant object if the relevant object is in the possession of or under the control of that person at the time of the alleged offence.

(2) The conditions are that the relevant object—

(a) may be required to be used in evidence in any proceedings in respect of the suspected offence; or

(b) may be the subject of forfeiture under section 16 (forfeiture of seized items) of this Act.

(3) An authorised officer shall produce his authority if required to do so by the person having possession or control of any relevant object seized in pursuance of the powers in subsection (1) above.

(4) An authorised officer or a constable shall, forthwith after seizing any relevant object under subsection (1) above, give to the person from whom the object was seized a certificate containing the following information—

(a) the name and address of the person who the authorised officer or constable suspects has committed the suspected offence;

(b) if different from the name and address of the person mentioned in paragraph (a) above, the name and address of the owner of the relevant object;

(c) the type of object seized (including, in the case of a vehicle, its make and registration mark); and

(d) information about subsection (2) of the said section 16.

(5) If an authorised officer or constable—

(a) is unable, after reasonable inquiry of the person who he suspects has committed the suspected offence, to ascertain the name or address of—

(i) that person; or

(ii) the owner of the relevant object; or

(b) has reasonable cause to suspect that a name or address provided to him is incorrect,

he need not comply with paragraph (a) or (b), as the case may be, of subsection (4) above.

(6) The owner of a vehicle for the purposes of this section, shall be taken to be the person by whom the vehicle is kept.

(7) In determining, for the purposes of this section, who was the owner of a vehicle at any time, it shall be presumed that the owner was the person in whose name the vehicle was at that time registered under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (c. 22).