UK Offence Report

A credit institution, or other institution or establishment within Article 6(1) of the Community Regulation,…

regulation 3(1) of The Protection of the Euro against Counterfeiting Regulations 2001

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 credit institution, or other institution or establishment within Article 6(1) of the Community Regulation, which fails immediately to hand over to the relevant body (or to a person with authority to act on behalf of the relevant body for the purposes of this regulation) a euro note or euro coin received by that institution or establishment which it knows or has sufficient reason to believe to be counterfeit shall be guilty of an offence and liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or b on conviction on indictment, to a 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 credit institution
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 credit institution 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 3(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 Protection of the Euro against Counterfeiting Regulations 2001.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
10 December 2001
In force from
1 January 2002
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, which come into force on 1st January 2002, implement the United Kingdom’s obligations under Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1338/2001, laying down measures necessary for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting, as applied to the United Kingdom by Article 1 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1339/2001, extending the effects of Regulation (EC) No. 1338/2001 to those Member States of the European Community which have not adopted the euro as their single currency (O.J. No. L181, 4.7.01, p.11). Regulations 2 and 3 create two criminal offences and set out the maximum sentences which can be imposed on persons convicted of those offences. Regulation 4 provides for directors and managers of companies, partners of partnerships and other similar persons to be liable to conviction if these offences are committed by the company, partnership or other body with their consent or connivance or as a result of their neglect.

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 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