73. The Department may provide and maintain centres (in this Part referred to as “vehicle testing centres”) where examinations of vehicles may be carried out for the purposes of the Road Traffic Orders and may provide and maintain apparatus for carrying out such examinations.
74.—(1) The Department shall appoint such examiners as it considers necessary for the purpose of carrying out the functions conferred on them by this Order, the Order of 1981 or [F1Parts 2 and 4] of the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967F2 or any other statutory provision.
(2) An examiner appointed under this Article shall act under the general directions of the Department.
(3) In this Part “vehicle examiner” means an examiner appointed under this Article.
(4) Any reference in any statutory provision to an inspector of vehicles within the meaning of Article 2(2) of the Order of 1981, to an officer or person authorised for the purposes of any Article of Part IV of that Order, or to an inspector appointed under section 37 of the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967F3 shall, so far as may be appropriate in consequence of the preceding provisions of this Article, be construed as a reference to an examiner appointed under this Article.
[F4(5) A person commits an offence if, for the purpose of directing the driver of a vehicle to stop the vehicle, the person, with intent to deceive, impersonates a vehicle examiner or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that the person is a vehicle examiner.]
F1Words in art. 74(1) substituted (1.7.2012) by Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act (Northern Ireland) 2010 (c. 2), s. 60(2), Sch. 3 para. 12; S.R. 2012/262, art. 2 (with arts. 4-6)
F4Art. 74(5) inserted (30.3.2011) by Road Vehicles (Powers to Stop) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/996), reg. 7(2)