Weights and Measures Act 1985

16 Offences in connection with stamping of equipment

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, any person who, in the case of any weighing or measuring equipment used or intended to be used for trade—

(a) not being an inspector or a person acting under the instructions of an inspector, marks in any manner any plug or seal used or designed for use for the reception of a stamp,

(b) forges, counterfeits or, except as permitted by or under this Act, in any way alters or defaces any stamp,

(c) removes any stomp and inserts it into any other such equipment,

(d) makes any alteration in the equipment after it has been stamped such as to make it false or unjust, or

(e) severs or otherwise tampers with any wire, cord or other thing by means of which a stamp is attached to the equipment,

shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) Paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) above shall not apply to the destruction or obliteration of any stamp, plug or seal, and paragraph (e) of that subsection shall not apply to anything done, in the course of the adjustment or repair of weighing or measuring equipment by, or by the duly authorised agent of, a person who is a manufacturer of, or regularly engaged in the business of repairing, such equipment.

(3) Any person who uses for trade, sells, or exposes or offers for sale any weighing or measuring equipment which to his knowledge—

(a) bears a stamp which is a forgery or counterfeit, or which has been transferred from other equipment, or which has been altered or defaced otherwise than as permitted by or under this Act, or

(b) is false or unjust as the result of an alteration made in the equipment after it has been stamped,

shall be guilty of an offence.

(4) Any weighing or measuring equipment in respect of which an offence under this section is committed, and any stamp or stamping implement used in the commission of the offence, shall be liable to be forfeited.