Any owner, lessee, agent, or other person, running or authorizing the running of an elevator or hoist in disregard of a notice from said bureau to cease so doing, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall, for that fact alone, be subject to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or of imprisonment not exceeding three months, either or both, at the discretion of the court; and the fact of such notice, duly proved, shall be conclusive evidence of negligence against such person, in any action to recover for injuries to person or property caused by the use of such elevator or hoist during the period within which its use was forbidden by said bureau; but nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to limit the criminal liability of such persons, in case of injury or death caused by the use of any such elevator or hoist, either with or without notice from said bureau of its dangerous or unsafe character or condition.
53 P.S. § 4144