UK Offence Report

1 A person who contravenes the requirements for notification under Article 3 without reasonable excuse,…

article 5(1) of The Potatoes Originating in Germany (Notification) Order (Northern Ireland) 2002

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

1 A person who contravenes the requirements for notification under Article

3 without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie on him, shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses reasonable cause to suspect; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

ntravenes the requirements for notification under Article 3 without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie on him, shall be guilty of an offence.

What would breach article 5(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes the requirements for notification under Article 3 without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie on him.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Potatoes Originating in Germany (Notification) Order (Northern Ireland) 2002, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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
Status not determined
Made
14 January 2002
In force from
11 February 2002
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 places certain notification requirements upon persons importing potatoes from Germany which have been grown after 2000. It requires importers bringing such potatoes into Northern Ireland on or after 11th February 2002 to give at least two days' notice in writing to an inspector of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, providing specified details as to, inter alia, the landing and intended use of the potatoes (Article 3(1)). It also requires importers of German potatoes which arrived in Northern Ireland between 14th January 2002 and the coming into operation of the Order on 11th February 2002 to provide specified information of a similar nature no later than 28th February 2002 (Article 3(2)). The Order provides that an inspector who has reasonable grounds for suspecting a contravention of its provisions may exercise in respect of German potatoes certain enforcement powers conferred by Articles 22, 23 and 25 of the Plant Health Order (Northern Ireland) 1993.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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