4. — (1) A person who contravenes a provision of this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

(2) A person who contravenes a provision of a regulation under this Act stated to be a penal regulation shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.

(3) A person who, after conviction for an offence under subsection (1) or (2), continues to contravene the provision concerned, shall be guilty of an offence on each day on which the contravention continues and for each such offence shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a class E fine, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €50,000.

(4) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or was attributable to any wilful neglect, of a person who was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of an offence and may be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(5) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (4) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.

(6) The Authority may bring and prosecute summary proceedings for an offence under this Act.

(7) Notwithstanding section 10 (4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851, summary proceedings for an offence under this Act to which that provision applies may be instituted—

(a) within 12 months from the date on which the offence was committed, or

(b) within 6 months from the date on which evidence sufficient, in the opinion of the person instituting the proceedings, to justify proceedings comes to that person’s knowledge,

whichever is the later, provided that no such proceedings shall be commenced later than 2 years from the date on which the offence concerned was committed.

(8) For the purposes of subsection (7)(b), a certificate signed by or on behalf of the person initiating the proceedings as to the date on which evidence referred to in that subsection came to his or her knowledge shall be evidence of that date and, in any legal proceedings, a document purporting to be a certificate under this subsection and to be so signed shall be deemed to be so signed and admitted as evidence without proof of the signature of the person purporting to sign the certificate, unless the contrary is shown.

(9) On convicting a person of an offence under this Act, the court shall unless satisfied that there are special and substantial reasons for not so doing, order the person to pay to the Authority the costs and expenses, measured by the court, incurred by the Authority in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of the offence.]