Offences against applicable Community rules

article 81(3) of Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981

• In force
• Requires proof of a state of mind
• Road traffic and vehicles

The instrument creating this offence has not been revoked so far as the data shows.

What the provision says

3 Any person who makes or causes to be made any entry in

a book, record or document kept for the purposes of the applicable Community rules which he knows to be false or, with intent to deceive, alters or causes to be altered any such entry shall be guilty of an offence under this Order.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

breaching the provision

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 (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: with intent to.

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 81(3)?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

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.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

• SCHEDULE 2ASCHEDULE 2A
• SCHEDULE 2ASCHEDULE 2A
• SCHEDULE 2ASCHEDULE 2A
• SCHEDULE 2ASCHEDULE 2A
• SCHEDULE 2ASCHEDULE 2A
• Provision of information, etc., relating to disabilitiesarticle 11(3)
• Provision of information, etc., relating to disabilitiesarticle 11(3B)
• Driving after refusal or revocation of licencearticle 11A(1)
• Approved driving instructorsarticle 132(5)
• Driving instruction for payment to be given only by registered or licenced personsarticle 133(3)
• Production of certificates and licences to constables and authorised personsarticle 137(3)
• Duration of licencesarticle 15

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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Road traffic and vehiclesOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 1981