Finance Act, 1992

Power to stop vehicles and detain excisable products.

115.—(1) Any person in charge of any vehicle or other conveyance, in or on which excisable products are being transported or in or on which it is reasonably believed by an officer that excisable products are being transported, shall stop such vehicle or other conveyance at the request of the said officer and shall produce to such officer any accompanying document, duty document or other document to which section 111 refers.

(2) Where a person in charge of any vehicle or other conveyance stops such a vehicle or other conveyance at the request of an officer, he shall allow the officer to carry out such searches of the vehicle or conveyance as appear to the said officer to be necessary to establish that any excisable products being transported therein correspond in every material respect with the description of any such excisable products contained in the documents referred to in subsection (1).

(3) Where, following the searches referred to in subsection (2), an officer discovers any material discrepancy between the excisable products being transported and those described in the said documents and the officer is not satisfied with any reasons tendered for such discrepancy and suspects that the said excisable products may, therefore, be liable to forfeiture or where the officer suspects that the said excisable products may be liable to forfeiture for any other reason, all of the products being transported together with any vehicle or other conveyance being made use of in the transportation of the said products, may be detained by the said officer until such enquiries or investigations as may be deemed necessary by the said officer or by another officer have been made for the purpose of determining to the satisfaction of either such officer whether or not the said products are liable to forfeiture.

(4) For the purpose of subsection (3), where excisable products are found in, on or in any manner attached to, any vehicle or other conveyance, the said vehicle or other conveyance shall be deemed to have been made use of in the conveyance of the said products.

(5) When a determination referred to in subsection (3) has been made in respect of any excisable products, or upon the expiry of a period of one month from the date on which the said products were detained under the said subsection, whichever is the earlier, the said products (together with any vehicle or other conveyance, detained with the said products by virtue of the said subsection) shall be seized as liable to forfeiture under the Customs Acts or the statutes which relate to duties of excise and any instrument relating to the duties of excise made under statute and the management thereof (as the case may be), or released.

(6) Any person who resists, obstructs or impedes an officer in the exercise of any power conferred on him by this section shall, without prejudice to any other penalty to which he may be liable, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty, under the law relating to customs or the law relating to excise (as the case may be), of £1,000.