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Offences.
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51.—(1) If for the purpose of obtaining any supplementary benefit or payment or repayment under this Act, either for himself or for any other person or for the purpose of avoiding any payment to be made by himself under this Act or enabling any other person to avoid any such payment, any person knowingly makes any false statement or false representation, or conceals any material fact, such person shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds.
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(2) If—
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(a) any employer or insured person has failed or neglected to pay any weekly contributions which he is liable under this Act to pay, or
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(b) any employer or insured person or any other person is guilty of any contravention of or non-compliance with any of the requirements of this Act or the regulations made thereunder in respect of which no special penalty is provided, or
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(c) any employer deducts or attempts to deduct from the wages or other remuneration of an insured person, the whole or any part of the employer's contribution,
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such person shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.
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(3) Where an employer has been convicted under sub-section (2) of this section of the offence of failing or neglecting to pay any weekly contributions which he is liable under this Act to pay, he shall be liable to pay to the Supplementary Unemployment Fund a sum equal to the amount which he has so failed or neglected to pay, and on such a conviction, if notice of the intention to do so has been served with the summons or warrant, evidence may be given of the failure or neglect on the part of the employer to pay other weekly contributions in respect of the same person during the three years preceding the date when the information was so laid, and on proof of such failure or neglect the employer shall be liable to pay to the Supplementary Unemployment Fund a sum equal to the total of all the weekly contributions which he is so proved to have failed or neglected to pay.
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Any sum paid by an employer under this sub-section shall be treated as a payment in satisfaction of the unpaid weekly contributions, and the insured person's portion of those weekly contributions shall not be recoverable by the employer from the insured person.
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(4) Every person—
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(a) who buys, sells, or offers for sale, takes or gives in exchange or pawns or takes in pawn any supplementary unemployment card, supplementary unemployment book or used supplementary insurance stamp, or
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(b) who attempts to evade payment of a weekly contribution by affixing or attempting to affix to any supplementary unemployment book or supplementary unemployment card a used supplementary insurance stamp which has been removed either by him or by some other person from any supplementary unemployment book or supplementary unemployment card or from any other material to which it was affixed or which has been previously used in any other manner,
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shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, and in any proceedings under this sub-section with respect to used stamps, a stamp shall be deemed to have been used if it has been cancelled or defaced in any way whatever or if it has been removed from any supplementary unemployment book or supplementary unemployment card or any other material to which it was affixed and whether it has been actually used for the purpose of payment of a weekly contribution or not.
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(5) Nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing the Minister from recovering by means of civil proceedings any sums due to the Supplementary Unemployment Fund and all such sums shall be recoverable as debts due to the State and without prejudice to any other remedy may be recovered by the Minister as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.
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(6) In any proceedings under this section or in any proceedings involving any question as to the payment of weekly contributions under this Act or for the recovery of any sums due to the Supplementary Unemployment Fund, the decision of the Minister on any question whether a person is or was an insured person within the meaning of this Act or not or as to who was the employer of an insured person, or as to the rate of weekly contribution to be paid in respect of an insured person shall, unless an appeal against the decision is pending or the time for appealing against the decision has not expired, be conclusive for the purpose of those proceedings and, if such a decision has not been obtained and the decision of the question is necessary for the determination of the proceedings, the question shall be referred to the Minister for decision in accordance with the provisions of this Act and where any such appeal is pending or the time for so appealing has not expired or any question has been so referred to the Minister, the court dealing with the case shall adjourn the proceedings until such time as a final decision on the question has been obtained.
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(7) Any sum that an employer is liable to pay under sub-section (3) of this section or any sum due to the Supplementary Unemployment Fund for which a court has made an order for payment may, without prejudice to other methods of recovery, be deducted by the Minister from any sums payable out of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund to such employer under this Act and any amounts so deducted shall be paid by the Minister into the Supplementary Unemployment Fund.
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