7.—(1) If an organisation or any other person, for the purposes of obtaining a grant for the organisation, in furnishing any information in purported compliance with a requirement imposed under regulation 4 intentionally or recklessly makes a statement or produces a document which is false or misleading in a material respect, it or he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
(2) If an organisation fails to comply with any requirement imposed by regulation 5(1), or intentionally obstructs a person appointed as mentioned in that regulation (or a person accompanying him and acting on his instructions) acting for the purpose of that regulation, it shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3) Proceedings for an offence under paragraph (1) or (2) above may, subject to paragraph (4) below, be commenced within the period of six months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the prosecutor to justify the proceedings comes to his knowledge.
(4) No such proceedings shall be commenced by virtue of this regulation more than five years after the commission of the offence.
(5) For the purposes of this regulation–
(a)a certificate signed by or on behalf of the prosecutor and stating the date on which evidence sufficient in his opinion to warrant the proceedings came to his knowledge shall be conclusive evidence of that fact;
(b)a certificate stating that matter and purporting to be so signed shall be deemed to be so signed unless the contrary is proved.
(6) In relation to proceedings in Scotland, subsection (3) of section 136 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995(1) (date of commencement and proceedings) shall apply for the purposes of this regulation as it applies for the purposes of that section.
(7) 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, a director, manager, secretary or other 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 guilty of that offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(8) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (7) above 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.