Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981

20 Summary prosecutions

(1) This section applies to—

(a) any offence under section 1(1) or 3(1) involving the killing or taking of any wild bird or the taking of an egg of such a bird ;

(b) any offence under section 9(1) involving the killing or taking of any wild animal; and

(c) any offence under section 13(1) involving the picking uprooting or destruction of any wild plant.

(2) Summary proceedings for an offence to which this section applies may be brought within a period of six months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the prosecutor to warrant the proceedings came to his knowledge ; but no such proceedings shall be brought by virtue of this section more than two years after the commission of the offence.

(3) For the purpose of this section a certificate signed by or on behalf of the prosecutor and stating the date on which such evidence as aforesaid came to his knowledge shall be conclusive evidence of that fact; and a certificate stating that matter and purporting to be so signed shall be deemed to be so signed unless the contrary is proved.