Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994
93Issue of warrants
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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;