UK Offence Report

Customs powers to demand evidence of destination which goods reach

article 11 of The Al-Qa'ida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2002

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

11 Any exporter or any shipper of goods which have been exported from the Territory shall, if so required by the Governor, furnish within such time as the Governor may allow proof to the Governor’s satisfaction that the goods have reached

a destination to which their exportation was not prohibited by this Order, and, if he fails to do so, he shall be guilty of an offence under this Order unless he proves that he did not consent to or connive at the goods reaching any destination other than such

a destination as aforesaid.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an exporter
Conduct
importing or exporting without authority
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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 an exporter 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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

to do so, he shall be guilty of an offence under this Order unless he proves that he did not consent to or connive at the goods reaching any destination other than such a destination as aforesaid.

What would breach article 11?

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. Moving the goods across the border under the Al-Qa'ida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2002 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Al-Qaida (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2012 (revoked)
Revoked on
7 August 2012
Made
23 January 2002
In force from
25 January 2002
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

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, applies to each of the territories specified in Schedule 1. It gives effect to Resolution 1390, adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations on 16th January 2002. In view of the changing situation in Afghanistan, Resolution 1390 continued, amended or terminated as appropriate certain provisions of Security Council Resolutions 1267, adopted on 15th October 1999, and 1333, adopted on 19th December 2000 which imposed sanctions in relation to Usama bin Laden, the Taliban and the territory of Afghanistan. The effect of Resolution 1390 is to require States to prohibit the delivery or supply of arms and related matériel and the provision of related technical assistance and training to Usama bin Laden, Al-Qa'ida, the Taliban and their associates. It also prohibits the making of funds available to those persons. The list of persons designated by the Security Council is to be found at http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/Afghanistan/Afg_list_eng.htm. The Order revokes the Afghanistan (United Nations Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2001 and the Afghanistan (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2001 and amends the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2001.

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