UK Offence Report

It shall be an offence for a person to use a specified motor vehicle registered in Northern Ireland, or any…

regulation 5(1) of The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (European Communities) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1973

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 It shall be an offence for

a person to use

a specified motor vehicle registered in Northern Ireland, or any trailer kept by

a person permanently resident in Northern Ireland, whether or not coupled, in the territory other than Northern Ireland and Gibraltar of any of the member states of the Communities, unless

a policy of insurance is in force in relation to the person using that vehicle which insures him in respect of any liability which may be incurred by him in respect of the use of the vehicle in such territory according to the law on compulsory insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of vehicles of the state where the liability may be incurred.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (European Communities) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1973.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£50
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

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
Not determined
In force from
Not determined
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 Regulations, but is intended to indicate their general purport.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement certain of the obligations arising out of the European Communities Council Directive of 24th April 1972 (O.J. No. L103/1, 2nd May 1972) relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles and trailers. Regulation 3 amends section 77(1) of the Road Traffic Act (Northern Ireland) 1970, with the result that the compulsory motor vehicle insurance cover required under Part V of that Act is extended to include liabilities arising out of the use of a motor vehicle or trailer which are compulsorily insurable in the territories of the member states of the Communities. Regulation 4 makes a consequential amendment to the provision relating to securities. Regulation 5 makes it an offence to use vehicles exempted from the compulsory insurance requirements in Northern Ireland in the territory (other than Northern Ireland and Gibraltar) of a member state of the Communities without insurance cover valid for those states. Regulations 6 and 7 provide for the checking of the insurance cover of vehicles coming from non-member states from the non-European territory of member states or from Gibraltar and enable the use of such vehicles, if uninsured, to be prohibited in Northern Ireland. Regulation 8 removes, in respect of insurance policies issued elsewhere than in the United Kingdom for vehicles kept in member states other than the United Kingdom and Gibraltar the requirements that they should be issued by an insurer carrying on motor insurance business in Northern Ireland and that there should be issued a certificate in a prescribed form. Regulation 9 extends the duty in section 81(1) of the Road Traffic Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 to give information as to insurance or security where a claim is made to include the case where, although there is cover for the purposes of Part V of that Act, no certificate has been delivered; and applies the offence in section 150(2) of the Road Traffic Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 to documents produced as evidence of insurance under Regulation 6.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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