Section 260: Appeals by prosecutor from court of summary jurisdiction

1 Where liability for any offence under the customs and excise laws is incurred by two or more persons jointly, those persons shall each be liable for the full amount of any fine and may be proceeded against jointly or severally.

2 In any proceedings for any offence or for the condemnation of anything as being forfeited under the customs and excise laws, the fact that security has been given by bond or otherwise for the payment of any duty or for compliance with any condition in respect of the non-payment of which or non-compliance with which the proceedings are instituted shall not be a defense.

3 Where, by or under any provision of the customs and excise laws a punishment is prescribed for an offence, and any person is convicted in the same proceedings of more than one such offence, that person shall be liable to that punishment for each such offence of which he is so convicted.

4 Where a fine for any offence under the customs and excise law is required to be fixed by reference to the value of any goods, that value shall be taken as the price which those goods might reasonably be expected to have fetched, after payment of any duty chargeable on the goods, if they had been sold in the open market at or about the date of the commission of the offence for which the fine is imposed; and a certificate as to the value of the goods under the hand of an officer shall be accepted as proof of such value, and shall be conclusive unless challenged by the person charged, in which event the court may proceed to hear evidence of value.

5 Where an offence under the customs and excise laws which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or any person purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be deemed to have committed the offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

6 In subsection (5) the word "director", in relation to a body corporate established for the purpose of carrying on a business under public ownership in any industry or part of an industry or undertaking, being a body corporate, whose affairs are managed by the members, means a member and employee of that body corporate.

7 Where, in any proceedings for an offence under the customs and excise laws, any question arises as to the duty or the rate chargeable on any goods, and where it is not possible to ascertain the relevant time of importation or exportation under Part VIII of this Act, that duty or rate shall be determine as if the goods had been imported or exported, as the case may be, without declaration at the time when the proceedings were commenced.