Customs Consolidation Act, 1853

Cards imported not to be sold without a wrapper provided by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue.

Penalty on persons selling cards not enclosed in proper wrappers; and forfeiture of cards, &c.

114. No pack or parcel of playing cards imported into any part of the United Kingdom shall be sold or exposed or kept for Sale without being separately enclosed in a wrapper provided by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, with such device thereon as they shall direct, and securely fastened round or over the same by means of some adhesive substance, and so and in such manner that such wrapper cannot be opened without being destroyed; and if any person shall sell, or offer or expose or keep for sale, any pack or parcel of playing cards, not being a pack of cards [2 within the meaning of an Act passed in the present session, chapter fifty-nine], and enclosed in a wrapper of a licensed maker of playing cards approved by the said commissioners, . . . without the same being enclosed in a wrapper provided by the last-mentioned commissioners in pursuance of this Act, and fastened as herein-before in that behalf mentioned he shall for every such pack or parcel of cards forfeit, if he shall not be a licensed maker of playing cards, the sum of ten pounds, and, if he shall be such licensed maker, the sum of twenty pounds, whether such cards shall have been made in the United Kingdom or imported; which penalty . . . may be recovered, either in her Majesty's Superior Courts or before any justice of the peace, in like manner as any penalty under any Act relating to stamp duties; and all snch cards so offered, exposed, or kept for sale may be seized and taken by any officer of Customs or Inland Revenue, and shall be disposed of as the Commissioners of Inland Revenue shall direct; and in any proceedings for the recovery of any such penalty by this Act imposed it shall be sufficient to allege that the person charged with the offence did sell, or offer or expose or keep for sale, as the case may be, a pack or any number of packs of playing cards, without the same being enclosed in a wrapper required by law, and it shall not be necessary further or otherwise to charge or describe the offence.

[2 The words in brackets are rep. 38 & 39 Vict. c. 66. (S.L.R.) A reference to 25 & 26 Vict. c. 22. s. 28 is substituted by 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36. s. 286.]