Article 18
1.—(1) Without prejudice to any other provision of this Order, or any provision of any other law;
(a)the Attorney General, or
(b)in the case of Guernsey, the Chief Revenue Officer or,
(c)in the case of Jersey, the licensing authority or a States Revenue Officer;
may request any person in or resident in Guernsey or, as the case may be, Jersey to furnish any information in his possession or control, or to produce any document in his possession or control, which it may require for the purpose of securing compliance with or detecting evasion of this Order; and any person to whom such a request is made shall comply with it within such time and in such manner as may be specified in the request.
(2) Nothing in the foregoing sub-paragraph shall be taken to require any person who has acted as a professional legal advisor for any person to disclose any privileged information or document in his possession in that capacity.
(3) Where a person is convicted of failing to furnish information or produce a document when requested so to do under this paragraph the court may make an order requiring him, within such period as may be specified in the order, to furnish the information or produce the document.
(4) The power conferred by this paragraph to request any person to produce documents shall include power to take copies of or extracts from any document so produced and to request that person, or, where that person is a body corporate, any other person who is a present or past officer of, or is employed by, the body corporate, to provide an explanation of any of them.
(5) The furnishing of any information or the production of any document under this paragraph shall not be treated as a breach of any restriction imposed by statute or otherwise.
2.—(1) If in the case of Guernsey or Jersey the Bailiff is satisfied by information on oath—
(a)that there is reasonable ground for suspecting that an offence under this Order or, with respect to any of the matters regulated by this Order, an offence under any enactment relating to customs has been or is being committed and that evidence of the commission of the offence is to be found on any premises specified in the information, or in any vehicle, ship or aircraft so specified, or
(b)that any documents which ought to have been produced under paragraph 1 above and have not been produced are to be found on any such premises or in any such vehicle, ship or aircraft,
he may grant a search warrant authorising any police officer or, in the case of Guernsey any States Revenue Officer, together with any other persons named in the warrant and any other police officers, to enter the premises specified in the information or, as the case may be, any premises upon which the vehicle, ship or aircraft so specified may be, at any time within one month from the date of the warrant and to search the premises, or as the case may be, the vehicle, ship or aircraft.
(2) A police officer or other person authorised by a warrant under sub-paragraph (1) who has entered any premises or any vehicle, ship or aircraft, may do any or all of the following things:
(a)inspect and search those premises or the vehicle, ship or aircraft for any material which he has reasonable grounds to believe may be evidence in relation to an offence referred to in this paragraph;
(b)seize anything on the premises or on the vehicle, ship or aircraft which he has reasonable grounds for believing is evidence in relation to an offence referred to in this paragraph;
(c)seize anything on the premises or on the vehicle, ship or aircraft which he has reasonable grounds to believe are required to be produced in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Schedule; or
(d)seize anything that is necessary to be seized in order to prevent it being concealed, lost, damaged, altered or destroyed.
(3) Any information required in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) above which is contained in a computer and is accessible from the premises or from any vehicle, ship or aircraft must be produced in a form in which it can be taken away and in which it is visible and legible.
(4) A police officer or, in the case of Guernsey any States Revenue Officer, lawfully on the premises or on the vehicle, ship or aircraft by virtue of a warrant issued under sub-paragraph (1) above may—
(a)search any person whom he has reasonable grounds to believe may be in the act of committing an offence referred to in this paragraph; and
(b)seize anything he finds in a search referred to in paragraph (a) above, if he has reasonable grounds for believing that it is evidence of an offence referred to in this paragraph;
Provided that no person shall be searched in pursuance of this sub-paragraph except by a person of the same sex.
(5) Where, by virtue of this paragraph a person is empowered to enter any premises, vehicle, ship or aircraft he may use such force as is reasonably necessary for that purpose.
(6) Any documents or articles of which possession is taken under this paragraph may be retained for a period of three months or, if within that period there are commenced any proceedings for such an offence as aforesaid to which they are relevant, until the conclusion of those proceedings.
(7) In the application of this paragraph to the islands of Alderney and Sark, any reference to the Bailiff includes a reference in the case of Alderney, to the Chairman of the Court of Alderney, and, in the case of Sark, to the Seneschal.
3. A person authorised—
(a)in Guernsey by the licensing authority or by the Chief Revenue Officer; or
(b)in Jersey, by the Agent of the Impôts,
to exercise any power for the purposes of this Schedule shall, if requested to do so, produce evidence of his authority before exercising that power.
4. No information furnished or document produced (including any copy of an extract made of any document produced) by a person in pursuance of a request made under this Schedule and no document seized under paragraph 2(2) above shall be disclosed except—
(a)with the consent of the person by whom the information was furnished or the document was produced or the person from whom the document was seized:
Provided that a person who has obtained information or is in the possession of a document only in his capacity as servant or agent of another person may not give consent for the purposes of this sub-paragraph but such consent may instead be given by any person who is entitled to that information or to the possession of that document in his own right;
(b)to any person who would have been empowered under this Schedule to request that it be furnished or produced, or to any person holding or acting in any office under or in the service of—
(i)the Crown in respect of the Government of the United Kingdom,
(ii)the government of the Isle of Man,
(iii)the States of Guernsey or Alderney or the Chief Pleas of Sark,
(iv)the States of Jersey, or
(v)the government of any territory listed in Schedule 1 to this Order;
(c)on the authority of the Attorney General, to any organ of the United Nations or to any person in the service of the United Nations or to the government of any other country for the purpose of assisting the United Nations or that government in securing compliance with or detecting evasion of measures in relation to the listed persons or any person acting on behalf of a listed person decided upon by the Security Council of the United Nations; or
(d)with a view to the institution of, or otherwise for the purposes of, any proceedings—
(i)in the Bailiwick in question, for an offence under this Order or, with respect to any of the matters regulated by this Order, for an offence under any enactment relating to customs, or
(ii)for any offence under any law making provision with respect to such matters that is in force in the other Bailiwick to which this Order applies, or to the United Kingdom, or the Isle of Man or any territory listed in Schedule 1 to this Order.
5. Any person who—
(a)without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within a reasonable time) to comply with any request made under this Schedule by any person who is empowered to make it; or
(b)furnishes any information or produces any documents which to his knowledge is false in a material particular or recklessly furnishes any document or information which is false in a material particular to such a person in response to such a request; or
(c)otherwise wilfully obstructs any person in the exercise of his powers under this Schedule; or
(d)with intent to evade the provisions of this Schedule, destroys, mutilates, defaces, secretes or removes any document,
shall be guilty of an offence.