Paragraph 4 Withholding and recovery of paymentsI1

Where–

intentionally obstructs an authorised person, or a person accompanying such authorised person and acting under the instructions of such person, from exercising a power under paragraph 2, or fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a request made by an authorised person when carrying out a specified control measure, the Scottish Ministers shall be entitled to recover on demand as a debt from that applicant the whole of any Scheme payment to that applicant.

Where an applicant is liable to repay all or part of a Scheme payment in accordance with Article 73 of Commission Regulation 796/2004, the amount of the repayment, together with the interest on that amount calculated in accordance with paragraph 6, shall be recoverable as a debt on demand to Scottish Ministers.

In any legal proceedings brought pursuant to sub-paragraph (2), a certificate of the relevant competent authority which–

shall be evidence of the rate applicable during that period.

In sub-paragraph (3), “the coordinating body” means the coordinating body referred to in Article 4(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1258/1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy^f1.