Shipping and Trading Interests (Protection) Act 1995

6 Enforcement of section 5. U.K.

(1) Where—

(a) any ship is used in the course of the provision of any shipping services to which section 5 applies, or

(b) anything is done on board a ship with a view to its being used to provide such services,

and the provision of those services is prohibited by virtue of subsection (1) of that section and is not sanctioned by any licence issued by virtue of subsection (3)(b) of that section, then (subject to subsections (6) and (7) below), the master and the owner of the ship shall each be guilty of an offence.

(2) Where the ship—

(a) is chartered by demise, or

(b) is managed, either wholly or in part, by a person other than the owner under the terms of a management agreement,

the reference in subsection (1) above to the owner of the ship shall be construed as including a reference—

(i) to the charterer under the charter by demise, or

(ii) to any such manager as is referred to in paragraph (b) above, or

(iii) (if the ship is both chartered and managed as mentioned above) to both the charterer and any such manager.

(3) Any person who—

(a) in connection with an application for such a licence as is mentioned in section 5(3)(b), or

(b) in purported compliance with the requirements of any notice served on him by virtue of section 5(3)(e),

knowingly or recklessly furnishes information which is false in a material particular shall be guilty of an offence.

(4) Any person who—

(a) without reasonable excuse (the proof of which lies on him) fails to comply with the requirements of any such notice, or

(b) intentionally alters, suppresses, conceals or destroys a document which he has been required to produce in pursuance of section 5(3)(e),

shall be guilty of an offence.

(5) Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to [F1 a fine not exceeding £50,000[F1 a fine]];

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine, or both.

(6) It shall be a defence in proceedings under subsection (1) above against the master of a ship to prove—

(a) that he did not know and had no reason to suspect that, in the circumstances of the case, the provision of the shipping services referred to in paragraph (a) or (as the case may be) paragraph (b) of that subsection was prohibited by virtue of section 5(1), or

(b) that he had reasonable grounds for believing that the provision of those services was sanctioned by a licence issued by virtue of section 5(3)(b).

(7) It shall be a defence in proceedings brought under subsection (1) above against a person other than the master of a ship to prove that, under the terms of one or more charter-parties or management agreements entered into by the defendant, the right to determine the purpose for which the ship in question was being used at the time of the alleged offence was wholly vested in some other person or persons party thereto (whether or not any such other person or persons had entered into a further charter-party or management agreement providing for that right to be vested in some other person).

(8) Subsections (1), (3) and (4) above apply to offences falling within those subsections wherever committed.

(9) In this section “management agreement”, in relation to a ship, means any agreement (other than a charter-party or a contract of employment) under which the ship is managed, either wholly or in part, by a person other than the owner (whether on behalf of the owner or on behalf of some other person).

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 6(5)(a) substituted (E.W.) (12.3.2015) by The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Fines on Summary Conviction) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/664), reg. 1(1), Sch. 4 para. 28(3) (with reg. 5(1))