Page:Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.pdf/53

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64.—(1) Save as permitted by the Commissioners, no ship or aircraft shall depart from any port or customs and excise airport from which it commences, or at which it touches during, a voyage or flight to an eventual destination outside the United Kingdom until clearance of the ship or aircraft for that departure has been obtained from the proper officer at that port or airport.

(2) The Commissioners may give directions—
 * (a) as to the procedure for obtaining clearance under this section;
 * (b) as to the documents to be produced and the information to be furnished by any person applying for such clearance.

(3) Where clearance is sought under this section for any ship which is in ballast or has on board no goods other than stores, the baggage of passengers carried in that ship, chalk, slate, or empty returned containers upon which no freight or profit is earned, the proper officer in granting clearance thereof shall, on the application of the master, clear the ship as in ballast.

(4) Any officer may board any ship which is cleared outwards from a port at any time while the ship is within the limits of a port or within 3 nautical miles of the coast of the United Kingdom and require the production of the ship's clearance, and if the master refuses to produce it or to answer such questions as the officer may put to him concerning the ship, cargo and intended voyage, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of £25.

(5) Every ship departing from a port shall, if so required for the purpose of disembarking an officer or of further examination, bring to at the boarding station, and if any ship fails to comply with any such requirement the master shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of £50.

(6) If any ship or aircraft required to be cleared under this section departs from any port or customs and excise airport without a valid clearance, the master or commander shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of £100.

(7) If, where any aircraft is required to obtain clearance from any customs and excise airport under this section, any goods are loaded, or are waterborne for loading, into that aircraft at that airport before application for clearance has been made, the goods shall be liable to forfeiture and, where the loading or making waterborne is done with fraudulent intent, any person concerned