Protection of wild plants of European protected species
38.—(1) It is an offence deliberately to pick, collect, cut, uproot or destroy a wild plant of a European protected species.
(2) It is an offence to keep, transport, sell or exchange, or offer for sale or exchange, any live or dead wild plant of a European protected species, or any part of, or anything derived from, such a plant.
(3) Paragraphs (1) and (2) apply to all stages of the biological cycle of the plants to which they apply.
(4) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under paragraph (1), by reason of any act made unlawful by that paragraph if he shows that the act was an incidental result of a lawful operation and could not reasonably have been avoided.
(5) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under paragraph (2) if he shows that the plant or other thing in question had been lawfully sold (whether to him or any other person).
For this purpose “lawfully” means without any contravention of these Regulations or Part II of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985.
(6) In any proceedings for an offence under this regulation, the plant in question shall be presumed to have been a wild plant unless the contrary is shown.
(7) A person guilty of an offence under this regulation shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.