(1)If any person—
(a)buys, sells or offers for sale, takes or gives in exchange, or pawns or takes in pawn any insurance card or any used insurance stamp; or
(b)affixes any used insurance stamp to any insurance card ; or
(c)for the purpose of obtaining any benefit or other payment under this Act, whether for himself or some other person, or for any other purpose connected with this Act—
(i)knowingly makes any false statement or false representation; or
(ii)produces or furnishes, or causes or knowingly allows to be produced or furnished, any document or information which he knows to be false in a material particular,
he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both.
(2)Regulations may provide for the recovery on summary conviction of monetary penalties in respect of any offence under this Act, being a contravention of or failure to comply with regulations, so, however, that such penalties shall not exceed ten pounds for each offence or, where the offence consists of continuing any such contravention or failure after conviction thereof, ten pounds together with a further ten pounds for each day on which it is so continued.
(3)Where an offence under this Act 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 negligence on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, 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.
(4)In this section the expression " insurance card " means any card issued under regulations for the purpose of the payment of contributions by affixing insurance stamps thereto ; and in any proceedings under subsection (1) of this section with respect to used stamps, a stamp shall be deemed to have been used if it has been affixed to an insurance card or cancelled or defaced in any way whatsoever and whether it has actually been used for the purpose of payment of a contribution or not.
(5)Nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing the Minister from recovering by means of civil proceedings any sums due to the National Insurance Fund.