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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND POLLUTION CONTROL ACT 1994 - SECT 93 Issue of warrants

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND POLLUTION CONTROL ACT 1994 - SECT 93

Issue of warrants

(1)  Where, on the application of an authorized officer or a council officer, a justice is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe –
(a) that a contravention of this Act has been, is being, or is about to be, committed in or on a place or vehicle; or
(b) that something may be found in or on a place or vehicle that has been used in, or constitutes evidence of, a contravention of this Act –
the justice may issue a warrant in respect of the place or vehicle authorizing an authorized officer or a council officer, with such assistants as he or she considers necessary, to use reasonable force to break into or open any part of, or anything in or on, the place or vehicle as specified in the warrant.
(2)  The grounds of an application for a warrant must be verified by affidavit.
(3)  An application for the issue of a warrant may be made either personally or by telephone.
(4)  An application for the issue of a warrant may not be made by telephone unless in the opinion of the applicant a warrant is urgently required and there is insufficient time to make the application personally.
(5)  Where an application for the issue of a warrant is made by telephone, the following provisions apply:
(a) the applicant must inform the justice of his or her name and identify himself or herself as an authorized officer or a council officer, and the justice, on receiving that information, is entitled to assume, without further inquiry, that the applicant is an authorized officer or a council officer;
(b) the applicant must inform the justice of the grounds on which he or she seeks the issue of the warrant;
(c) if it appears to the justice from the information given by the applicant that there are proper grounds for the issue of a warrant, the justice must inform the applicant of the facts on which he or she relies as grounds for the issue of the warrant, and must not proceed to issue the warrant unless the applicant undertakes to make an affidavit verifying those facts;
(d) if the applicant gives such an undertaking, the justice may then make out and sign a warrant, noting on the warrant the facts on which he or she relies as grounds for the issue of the warrant;
(e) the warrant will be taken to have been issued, and will come into force, when signed by the justice;
(f) the justice must inform the applicant of the terms of the warrant;
(g) the applicant must, as soon as practicable after the issue of the warrant, forward to the justice an affidavit verifying the facts referred to in paragraph (c) .
(6)  An authorized officer or a council officer who executes a warrant must, as soon as practicable after execution of the warrant –
(a) prepare a notice in the prescribed form containing –
(i) his or her name and a statement that he or she is an authorized officer or a council officer; and
(ii) the name of the justice who issued the warrant and the date and time of its issue; and
(iii) a description of the place or vehicle to which the warrant relates and of the authority conferred by the warrant; and
(b) give the notice to the occupier or person apparently in charge of the place or vehicle in respect of which the warrant was issued or leave it for him or her in a prominent position on the place or vehicle.
(7)  A warrant expires if it has not been executed by the end of one month after the day on which it was issued.