UK Offence Report

False statements in connection with forgery of, and fraudulent use of, documents; issue of false insurance…

article 174(1) of Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981

The instrument creating this offence has not been revoked so far as the data shows.

What the provision says

1 A person shall be guilty of an offence under this Order who— a in connection with an application for– i any licence under the Road Traffic Orders; ii a goods vehicle test certificate under the Road Traffic Orders; iii an international road haulage permit; iv the entry or retention of a name in the register of driving instructors maintained under Part V of the Order of 2007; v a document evidencing the successful completion of training provided in accordance with regulations under Article 64 of the Order of 2007; vi any certificate under Article 65 of the Order of 2007, knowingly makes a declaration which is false or is misleading in any material respect; b being required by any provision of the Road Traffic Orders or of any regulations made under the Road Traffic Orders to furnish particulars in connection with any such application as aforesaid or otherwise in connection with any vehicle, knowingly furnishes particulars which are false or are misleading in any material respect; c for the purpose of obtaining the issue of a certificate of insurance or a certificate of security under Article 92 or 93, knowingly makes a statement which is false, or withholds any material information; d issues a certificate of insurance or certificate of security under Article 92 or 93 which he knows to be false in any material particular. e knowingly produces false evidence for the purposes of regulations under Article 72 of the Order of 1995 or knowingly makes a false statement in a declaration required to be made by those regulations; f intentionally makes a false entry in any record required to be made or kept by regulations under Article 82 of the Order of 1995, or with intent to deceive, makes use of any such entry which he knows to be false.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (for the purpose of obtaining, intentionally, knowingly, with intent to).

The provision gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, intentionally, with intent to, for the purpose of obtaining.

The defence, as drafted

paragraph (3)( b) in relation to a person employed by him, it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he did not know, and had no reasonable cause to believe, that he, or, as the case may be, the person employed by him, was not at the material time registered in the register of approved driving instructors. 5 Any person who knowingly makes a false statem

What would breach article 174(1)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
In force
Made
10 February 1981
In force from
Not determined
Extent
N.I.

How this was established: read from the revised (currently in force) text.

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source