The Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Illegal consignments of products

14.—(1) This regulation shall have effect when an inspector, on reasonable grounds, suspects that any consignment, other than live animals, is intended to be dispatched in contravention of these Regulations.

(2) The inspector may seize the consignment and remove it in order to have it dealt with by a Lay Magistrate.

(3) If an inspector seizes a consignment, he shall inform the person appearing to him to be in charge of the consignment of his intention to have it dealt with by a Lay Magistrate, and—

(a) any person who might be liable for prosecution under these Regulations in relation to the dispatch shall, if he attends before the Lay Magistrate by whom the consignment falls to be dealt with, be entitled to be heard and to call witnesses; and

(b) the Lay Magistrate may, but need not, be a member of the court before which any person is charged with an offence under these Regulations in relation to that consignment.

(4) If it appears to a Lay Magistrate that there was an intention to dispatch the consignment in contravention of these Regulations he shall, unless he is satisfied that the consignment can be returned to the owner without risk of a further attempt to dispatch it in contravention of these Regulations, order that the consignment shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of so as to prevent it from being despatched.

(5) When under the preceding paragraph a Lay Magistrate is satisfied that there was an intention to dispatch a consignment in breach of these Regulations, the owner, the consignor and the consignee shall be jointly and severally liable for the costs reasonably incurred in its removal to storage, its storage and its destruction or disposal.