Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979

20 Penalty for excess or deficiency in rectifier's stock

(1) If at any time when an account is taken by an officer and a balance struck of the spirits in the stock of a rectifier any excess is found, that excess shall be liable to forfeiture, and the rectifier shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of double the duty on a like quantity of plain spirits at proof charged at the highest rate.

(2) If at any time when an account is taken and a balance struck as mentioned in subsection (1) above any deficiency is found which cannot be accounted for to the satisfaction of the Commissioners and which when computed at proof exceeds 5 per cent. of the aggregate of—

(a) the balance so computed struck when an account was last taken; and

(b) any quantity of spirits so computed since lawfully received by the rectifier,

the rectifier shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of double the duty on a quantity of plain spirits at proof charged at the highest rate equal to the quantity by which the deficiency exceeds the said 5 per cent.

(3) For the purposes of any such account and of this section—

(a) spirits used by a rectifier in warehouse in pursuance of warehousing regulations shall be deemed not to be spirits in his stock as a rectifier; and

(b) where a rectifier also carries on the trade of a wholesaler of spirits on the same premises, all spirits in his possession (other than spirits so used) shall be deemed to be spirits in his stock as a rectifier.