Forcible entry on suspicion

(1) Upon information on oath being made before any magistrate or Justice of the Peace by any police officer or credible person that he suspects and believes that any liquor has been sold or retailed by any person who is not a licence holder in any unlicensed building or other unlicensed place, and that police officer or other person stating in the said information reasonable ground for such suspicion and belief, the magistrate or Justice of the Peace, as the case may be, may, in his discretion, grant his warrant to any police officer to enter and search any such building or other place by day or by night. (2) Every police officer authorised by a warrant under this section may break open the doors, if not opened within a reasonable time after demand, and seize all such fermented, spirituous or mixed liquor which he then and there finds and the vessel or vessels in which it is contained, and he may detain the same until the owner thereof appears before a magistrate to claim the liquor and satisfies the magistrate how and for what purpose he became possessed of it or, after being summoned, fails to appear. (3) If it appears to the magistrate after due inquiry and examination that such liquor was in the building or other place for the purpose of being illegally sold or disposed of by retail, he shall adjudge the said liquor and vessels to be forfeited, and 44 the same shall be sold, and the proceeds thereof after payment of all expenses be appropriated in like manner as fines are in this Act directed to be appropriated. (4) If the magistrate is not satisfied that the said liquor was in the building or other place for the purpose of being illegally sold or disposed of by retail, he shall order the liquor and vessel or vessels containing it to be restored to the owner.