UK Offence Report

Forgery, etc of seals on recording equipment

regulation 97AA(1) of The Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations 1989

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, with intent to deceive, forges, alters or uses any seal on recording equipment installed in, or designed for installation in,

a vehicle to which section

97 of this Act applies, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: with intent to.

What would breach regulation 97AA(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 forges, alters or uses any seal on recording equipment installed in, or designed for installation in, a vehicle to which section 97 of this Act applies.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations 1989.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£2,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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.

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
16 November 1989
In force from
23 November 1989
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) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations further amend section 97 of the Transport Act 1968 which requires the installation and use of recording equipment in certain goods vehicles (regulation 2) and inserts a new section 97AA in that Act concerning the forgery of seals on such equipment (regulation 3). The amendments in regulation 2– a make it an offence to use, or cause or permit to be used, a vehicle to which section 97 applies if the recording equipment in the vehicle has been repaired otherwise than in accordance with the Community Recording Equipment Regulation as defined in section 97 as amended; b introduce a defence for a person charged with contravention of section 97 if he proves to the court that he neither knew nor ought to have known that the recording equipment had not be installed or repaired, as the case may be, in accordance with the Community Recording Equipment Regulation; and c increase from level 4 on the standard scale to level 5 the penalty on summary conviction for an offence under section 97. Regulation 3 introduces a new section 97AA which makes forgery, alteration or use, with intent to deceive, of a seal on recording equipment an offence. A person guilty of the offence is liable– a on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or b on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.

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.

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 0.92.

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