Failure to disclose knowledge or suspicion of money laundering proceeds of drug trafficking

article 44(7) of The Proceeds of Crime (Northern Ireland) Order 1996

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• Either way
• Corporate, financial services, company law, employment, charity, electoral and tax

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

7 In this Article “money laundering” means doing any act which constitutes an offence under Article 45,46 or

47 or, in the case of an act done otherwise than in Northern Ireland, would constitute such an offence if done in Northern Ireland.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

Strict liability

Burden of proof

No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 44(7)?

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 Proceeds of Crime (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£5,000

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

Maximum prison (on indictment)

6 months

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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.

• Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales

  How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.

• Fraud, bribery and money laundering offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2014

  Covers fraud, false accounting, bribery and money laundering, including offences committed by organisations.

• Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.

• 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

Status not determined

Made

15 May 1996

In force from

25 August 1996

Extent

Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order amends and largely restates the law in relation to the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

• Proceeds Of Crime (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 Lords · 9 May 1996
• Proceeds Of Crime Bill Lords · 25 June 2002 · Lord Falconer of Thoroton

  My Lords, the point was raised in the Commons, where there was a Division on it, and it was raised in Committee in this House. My noble friend Lord Rooker agreed to reconsider the matter and one imagines that even as we speak he is still doing so. I am sure that it had nothing whatever to do with his move. As explained in the Explanatory Notes accompanying the Bill, the Human Rights Act 1998 requires a judge not to…

• Constitutional Reform Bill Hl Lords · 11 October 2004

  In the Proceeds of Crime (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, in paragraph (6)(b) of Article 13 (application of procedure for enforcing fines) for "House of Lords" substitute "Supreme Court"."

• Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Disclosure of Information) Order 2008 Lords · 17 June 2008 · Baroness Hanham

  I thank the Minister for his introduction, although I am slightly confused. My understanding is that the orders would add to the functions of protecting public health and the Financial Services Authority. That is what the orders say, but the Minister did not give that addition. I assume that that addition under the orders is correct. If I am correct, room was left for that within the original proceeds of crime…

Other offences in the same instrument

• SCHEDULE 2SCHEDULE 2
• SCHEDULE 2SCHEDULE 2
• Assessing the proceeds of drug traffickingarticle 10(4)
• Interpretationarticle 2(2)
• Interpretationarticle 2(4)
• Interpretationarticle 2(4)(b)
• Interpretationarticle 2(5)
• Interpretationarticle 2(5)(a)
• Interpretationarticle 2(5)(b)
• A person shall be guilty of an offence if— a he knows or suspects that another person is engaged in money…article 44(1)
• Acquisition, possession or use of proceeds of criminal conductarticle 45(1)
• Acquisition, possession or use of proceeds of criminal conductarticle 45(10)

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 0.75.

Basis

the provision says the conduct “constitutes an offence”

Confidence

0.75 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.
• The Proceeds of Crime (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Corporate, financial services, company law, employment, charity, electoral and taxOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 1996