Pharmacy Act 1954

Offences

18 Falsifications by the registrar

If the registrar wilfully makes or causes to be made any falsification in any matter relating to the register or the Annual Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists or any such certificate as is mentioned in subsection (5) of section three of this Act, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and, in the case of a falsification relating to the said Annual Register, liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months.

19 Restrictions on use of certain titles, etc.

(1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of section nine and subsection (1) of section ten of the Act of 1933 (which authorise the use of certain titles and descriptions by bodies corporate and by representatives of pharmaceutical chemists who have died or are under certain disabilities) it shall not be lawful for any person, unless he is a registered pharmaceutical chemist—

(a) to take or use any of the following titles, that is to say, pharmaceutical chemist, pharmaceutist, pharmacist, chemist and druggist, druggist, or member of the Pharmaceutical Society;

(b) to take or use, in connection with the sale of goods by retail, the title of chemist.

(2) Subject as aforesaid, it shall not be lawful for any person to use, in connection with any business, any title, emblem or description reasonably calculated to suggest that he or any person employed in the business possesses any qualification with respect to the selling, dispensing or compounding of drugs or poisons other than the qualification which he in fact possesses.

For the purposes of this subsection—

(a) the use of the description " pharmacy " in connection with a business carried on any premises shall be deemed to be reasonably calculated to suggest that the owner of the business and the person having the control of the business on those premises are registered pharmaceutical chemists; and

(b) the expression " dispensing " in relation to a poison has the same meaning as in the Act of 1933.

(3) If any person acts in contravention of the foregoing provisions of this section, he shall be liable on summary conviction, in respect of each offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds and in the case of a continuing offence to a further fine not exceeding five pounds for every day subsequent to the day on which he is convicted of the offence during which the contravention continues.

20 Offences relating to certificates

(1) If any person fraudulently exhibits any certificate purporting to be a certificate of membership of the Society, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.

(2) If, with intent to deceive, any person—

(a) forges, or uses, or lends to or allows to be used by any other person any certificate issued under the Pharmacy Acts; or

(b) makes or has in his possession any document so closely resembling such a certificate as to be calculated to deceive,

he shall be liable on summary conviction, in respect of each offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a (further fine not exceeding five pounds for every day subsequent to the day on which he is convicted of the offence during which the contravention continues.

In the application of this subsection to England or Wales, the expression " forges " has the same meaning as in the Forgery Act, 1913.

(3) If any person to whom a certificate of registration has been issued in pursuance of section five of this Act ceases to be a registered pharmaceutical chemist he shall, before the expiration of fourteen days from so ceasing, transmit the certificate to the registrar for cancellation, and, if he fails to do so, he shall be liable on summary conviction, in respect of each offence, to a fine not exceeding five pounds and to a further fine not exceeding one pound for every day subsequent to the day on which he is convicted of the offence during which the default continues.

21 Extension of time for certain prosecutions

Notwithstanding anything in the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952 or the Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Act, 1908, proceedings for an offence under section nineteen of this Act or subsection (2) or subsection (3) of the last foregoing section may be commenced at any time within the period of twelve months next after the date of the commission of the offence.