Customs and Excise Management Act 1979

117 Execution and distress against revenue traders. U.K.

(1) Where any sum is owing by a revenue trader in respect of any relevant excise duty or of any relevant penalty, all the following things which are in the possession or custody of that trader or of any agent of his or of any other person on his behalf shall be liable to be taken in execution in default of the payment of that sum, that is to say—

(a) all goods liable to a relevant excise duty, whether or not that duty has been paid;

(b) all materials for manufacturing or producing any such goods; and

(c) all apparatus, equipment, machinery, tools, vessels and utensils for, or for preparing any such materials for, such manufacture or production, or by which the trade in respect of which the duty is imposed is carried on.

(2) Subsection (1) above shall also apply in relation to things falling within paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of that subsection which, although they are not still in the possession or custody of the trader, an agent of his or other person on his behalf, were in such possession or custody—

(a) at the time when the relevant excise duty was charged or became chargeable or at any time while it was owing; or

(b) at the time of the commission of the offence for which the penalty was incurred.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) or (2) above, but subject to subsection (4) below, where the proper officer has taken account of and charged any goods chargeable with a relevant excise duty and those goods are in the ordinary course of trade sold for full and valuable consideration to a bona fide purchaser and delivered into his possession before the issue of any warrant or process for distress or seizure of the goods, those goods shall not be liable to be seized under this section.

(4) Where any goods have been seized under this section, the burden of proof that the goods are by virtue of subsection (3) above not liable to be so seized shall lie upon the person claiming that they are not so liable.

(5) Where any relevant excise duty payable by a revenue trader remains unpaid after the time within which it is payable, the proper officer may by warrant signed by him empower any person to distrain any thing liable to be taken in execution under this section and, subject to subsection (6) below, to sell any thing so distrained by public auction after giving 6 days’ notice of the sale.

(6) Where, under subsection (5) above, any thing has been distrained in respect of duty payable by a distiller, brewer, licensed producer of wine, licensed producer of made-wine or registered maker of cider he may, F1 , at any time before the day appointed for the sale remove the whole or part of any products of or materials for his manufacture which have been so distrained upon paying to the proper officer in or towards payment of the duty the true value of those products or materials.

(7) The proceeds of any sale under subsection (5) above shall be applied in or towards payment of the costs and expenses of the distress and sale and in or towards payment of the duty due from the trader, and the surplus (if any) shall be paid to the trader.

[F2 (7A) Where distress is levied under this section for any amount estimated under section 116A above and it is afterwards proved that the amount properly due was less than the amount estimated, that shall not affect the legality of the distress or anything done under this section in connection therewith, but the proceeds of sale shall be applied under subsection (7) above in accordance with the amount properly due and not in accordance with the amount estimated]

(8) In this section—

• “relevant excise duty” means excise duty other than duty chargeable on imported goods; and

• “relevant penalty” means a penalty incurred under the revenue trade provisions of the customs and excise Acts.

[F3 (9) This section shall apply to Scotland subject to the following modifications—

(a) in subsection (3) for the words from “issue” to the end there shall be substituted the words “granting of a warrant for the recovery of a sum owing by the revenue trader, those goods shall not be liable to be taken in execution under this section.”;

(b) in subsection (4) for the word “seized” in both places where it occurs there shall be substituted the words “taken in execution”;

(c) subsection (10) below shall apply in place of subsection (5);

(d) in subsection (6) for the word “distrained” in both places where it occurs there shall be substituted the words “taken into possession”;

(e) in subsection (7) for the words “of the distress and sale” there shall be substituted the words “incurred in the taking into possession and sale of the things under that subsection”;

(f) in subsection (7A) for the words “distress is levied” there shall be substituted the words “things are taken into possession” and for the word “distress” where second occurring there shall be substituted the words “taking into possession”.

(10) The sheriff, on an application by the proper officer accompanied by a certificate by him that relevant excise duty payable by a revenue trader remains unpaid after the time within which it is payable, may grant a warrant authorising a sheriff officer—

(a) to take into possession, by force if necessary, anything liable to be taken in execution under this section and for that purpose to open shut and lockfast places; and

(b) to sell anything so taken into possession by public auction after giving 6 days notice of the sale.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Words repealed by Finance Act 1981 (c. 35, SIF 40:1), s. 139, Sch. 19 Pt. III

F2 S. 117(7A) inserted by Finance Act 1981 (c. 35, SIF 40:1), s. 11, Sch. 8 Pt. I para. 8

F3 S. 117(9)(10) substituted (S.) for s. 117(9) by Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 (c. 18, SIF 45:2), s. 108(1), Sch. 6 para. 21 with Sch. 7 para. 5