Tobacco (Health Promotion and Protection) Act, 1988

Restriction on sale of tobacco products.

3.—(1) Any person who sells, offers to sell, or makes available in relation to the sale of any other product, any tobacco product to a person under the age of 16 years, whether for his own use or otherwise, or who sells to any person, acting on behalf of a person under the age of 16 years, any tobacco products, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £500.

(2) The owner, or other person in charge, of any machine for the sale of tobacco products who permits the machine to be used for the sale of such products to a person under the age of 16 years shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £500.

(3) Whenever a person is prosecuted for an offence under this section, it shall be a defence for him to establish that he had taken all reasonable steps to assure himself that the person to whom the tobacco products were sold, offered for sale or made available had attained the age of 16 years.

(4) Where, in a prosecution of an offence under this section, it is alleged that the person in respect of whom the offence was committed is under the age of 16 years, and such person appears to the court to have been, at the date of the commission of the alleged offence, under the age of 16 years, such person shall for the purposes of this section be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been at that date under that age.