UK Offence Report

The Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976

paragraph 5(5) of SCHEDULE of The Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (Consequential Amendments) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015

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

5 After Article 21, insert— Solicitor practising whilst subject to

a bankruptcy restrictions order 21A If

a solicitor continues to practise as

a solicitor while subject to

a bankruptcy restrictions order and without having had the suspension of his practising certificate terminated under Article 16(4) or (7) or, if his practising certificate has effect subject to terms and conditions by virtue of

a direction under Article 16(4)(c) or (7), without complying with those terms or conditions, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years [and/or an unlimited fine]. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 paragraph 5(5) of SCHEDULE?

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 Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (Consequential Amendments) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Indictable only — tried in the Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
12 March 2015
In force from
21 April 2015
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.

Individuals who are bankrupt may be prevented by certain statutory provisions (“disqualification provisions”) from being elected or appointed to, or holding, an office of position, or from becoming or remaining a member of a body or group. Article 30 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 gives the Department the power to make orders making supplementary, incidental or consequential provisions for the general purposes or for any particular purpose of the Order or in consequence of any provision made by or under it or for giving full effect to it. Such Orders may amend, repeal or modify any statutory provision, including the Order itself, and may make incidental, supplementary, consequential, transitional, transitory or saving provisions. The Schedule to this Order, which was made under Article 30 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 amends certain disqualification provisions which did not meet the criteria for being amended under a specific power provided by Article 24 of that Order. A regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared for this Order as it has no impact on the costs of business.

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