Offences in connection with applications for licences, conditions attaching to licences, etc.

article 8(2) of The Liberia (United Nations Sanctions) Order 2001

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• Either way
• International sanctions, export control and trade restrictions

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

2 Any person who has done any act under the authority of

a licence granted by the Secretary of State under this Order and who fails to comply with any conditions attaching to that licence shall be guilty of an offence under this Order:

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

failing to do something the instrument requires

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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach article 8(2)?

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 has done any act under the authority of a licence granted by the Secretary of State under this Order and who fails to comply with any conditions attaching to that licence.
2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Liberia (United Nations Sanctions) Order 2001, by the time it requires it to be done.
3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£5,000

Standard scale

Level 5

Maximum prison (summary)

6 months

Maximum prison (on indictment)

2 years

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2001-03-16); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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.

• 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.

• Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.

• 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

14 March 2001

In force from

16 March 2001

Extent

E+W+S+NI

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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order, made under the United Nations Act 1946, imposes restrictions on the delivery or supply of arms and related matériel and the provision of related technical assistance and training to Liberia pursuant to a decision of the Security Council of the United Nations in its resolution 1343 of 7th March 2001. The Order also revokes the United Nations Arms Embargoes (Liberia, Somalia and the former Yugoslavia) Order 1993 in so far as that Order applies to Liberia.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

• Provisions supplementary to articles 10 to 12article 13(3)
• Supply of restricted goodsarticle 3(1)
• Provision of certain technical assistance or trainingarticle 5
• Use of ships, aircraft and vehicles: restricted goods, technical assistance and trainingarticle 6(3)
• Customs powers to demand evidence of destination which goods reacharticle 7
• Any person who has done any act under the authority of a licence granted by the Secretary of State under…article 8
• If for the purposes of obtaining any licence under this Order, any person makes any statement or furnishes…article 8(1)
• Declaration as to goods: powers of searcharticle 9(2)
• Declaration as to goods: powers of searcharticle 9(3)
• Any person who— a without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified…paragraph 5 of SCHEDULE 2

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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• The Liberia (United Nations Sanctions) Order 2001 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• International sanctions, export control and trade restrictionsOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 2001