Offences, penalty and forfeiture
regulation 6 of The Free Zone Regulations 1991
- Status not determined
- Strict liability
- Summary only
- 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
6 In the event of any contravention or failure to comply with–
a any relevant Community provision; or
b any requirement or condition imposed by or under any such provision; or
c any undertaking given pursuant to any such provision or requirement; or
d any regulation made under section 100B of the Act in its continued application by virtue of regulation 3(2) above; or
e any regulation made under section 100C(4) of the Act, the person responsible for the contravention or failure shall be liable on summary conviction to
a penalty of level
3 on the standard scaletogether with
a penalty of £40 for each day on which the contravention or failure continues and any goods in respect of which the offence was committed shall be liable to forfeiture.
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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 a condition of a licence, permit or consent
- 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 6?
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.
- Holding a valid licence but doing the thing it allows outside the hours, place or limits its conditions set under the Free Zone Regulations 1991.
- Failing to do something a condition positively requires - a record, a notification, a monitoring step - even though the licensed activity itself is carried on properly.
Penalty
- Mode of trial
- Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
- Maximum fine
- £40
- Maximum prison (summary)
- Not determined
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.
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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.
-
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
- 4 December 1991
- In force from
- 1 January 1992
- 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.
From 1st January 1992 the administration of free zones will be governed by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2504/88 and Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2562/90. The provisions of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 which are superseded by that legislation are repealed by these Regulations. Free zones will continue to be designated under section 100A of the 1979 Act in statutory instruments. These Regulations provide that the effect of certain of the repealed provisions will be retained in connection with the application of value added tax to goods in free zones. Penalties and forfeiture are provided for contravention of the requirements of the EC Regulations.
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 0.72.
- Basis
- the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
- Confidence
- 0.72 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 Free Zone Regulations 1991 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 1991