PART IVOFFENCES AND PENALTIES
Offences and penalties
15.—(1) Any person who fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with any requirement of the Authority pursuant to regulation 13 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding Level 3 on the standard scale.
(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of regulations 3, 4 or 14 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding the statutory maximum or on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or both.
(3) (a) Subject to sub-paragraph (b), summary proceedings for an offence under these Regulations may be commenced in Scotland within a period of six months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the Procurator Fiscal to warrant proceedings came to his knowledge.
(b)No such proceedings shall be commenced by virtue of this regulation more than three years after the commission of the offence.
(c)For the purposes of this regulation, a certificate signed by or on behalf of the Procurator Fiscal and stating the date on which evidence sufficient in his opinion to warrant the proceedings 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.
(d)Section 331(3) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (date of commencement of proceedings)(1) shall apply for the purposes of this regulation as it applies for the purposes of that section.