UK Offence Report

Unauthorised decoders.

regulation 297A(1) of The Conditional Access (Unauthorised Decoders) Regulations 2000

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 commits an offence if he—

a makes, imports, distributes, sells or lets for hire or offers or exposes for sale or hire any unauthorised decoder;

b has in his possession for commercial purposes any unauthorised decoder;

c instals, maintains or replaces for commercial purposes any unauthorised decoder; or

d advertises any unauthorised decoder for sale or hire or otherwise promotes any unauthorised decoder by means of commercial communications.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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 297A(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. Selling the goods under the Conditional Access (Unauthorised Decoders) Regulations 2000 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
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
27 April 2000
In force from
28 May 2000
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 implement Directive 98/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access (OJ L320, 28.11.98, p.54) (“the Directive”). The Directive provides for protection against illicit devices which enable or facilitate the circumvention of technological measures designed to protect television and radio subscription services, “information society services” (as defined in the Directive) and conditional access services (which are to be afforded the same legal protection as the other services). These Regulations amend sections 297A and 298 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”) and section 42A of the Telecommunications Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”). Section 297A of the 1988 Act now covers the activities prohibited by the Directive. The rights and remedies in section 298 now extend to the providers of information society services and conditional access services. Section 42A of the 1984 Act is amended so as to avoid overlap with the amended section 297A of the 1988 Act. A Regulatory Impact Assessment is available and can be obtained from the Copyright Directorate, The Patent Office, Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DP.

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits 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