UK Offence Report

Breaches of the EC Regulation

regulation 2(1) of The Zimbabwe (Freezing of Funds and Economic Resources) Regulations 2004 (revoked)

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 Any person who—

a without reasonable excuse commits

a breach of Article 6(1) of the EC Regulation;

b commits

a breach of Article 6(2) of the EC Regulation; or

c commits

a breach of Article 6(3) of the EC Regulation; is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised); other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

The defence, as drafted

1 Any person who— a without reasonable excuse commits a breach of Article 6(1) of the EC Regulation; b commits a breach of Article 6(2) of the EC Regulation; or c commits a breach of Article 6(3) of the EC Regulation; is guilty of an offence.

What would breach regulation 2(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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Zimbabwe (Freezing of Funds and Economic Resources) Regulations 2004, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2004-03-19); 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.

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
18 March 2004
In force from
19 March 2004
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 provide that breaches of certain provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No. 314/2004 of 19th February 2004 (“the EC Regulation”) are criminal offences. The provisions in question are: a Article 6(1) which provides for the freezing of funds and economic resources belonging to individual members of the Government of Zimbabwe and persons or entities associated with them as listed in Annex III to the EC Regulation; b Article 6(2) which prohibits the making available of funds or economic resources directly or indirectly to or for the benefit of persons listed in Annex III to the EC Regulation; c Article 6(3) which prohibits the knowing and intentional participation in activities the object or effect of which is to promote the transactions or activities referred to in Article 6(1) and (2); and d Article 8 which requires all persons to provide immediately to the Treasury or the Bank of England and to the European Commission any information which would facilitate compliance with the EC Regulation, but requires such information to be used only for the purposes for which it was provided or received. Regulation 3 makes it an offence to provide false information in connection with a request for an authorisation under Article 7(1) of the EC Regulation. Regulation 4 and the Schedule make provision for information to be requested by or on behalf of the Treasury or the Bank of England for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the EC Regulation. Failure to provide such information, the provision of false information or the suppression of information is made a criminal offence. Unauthorised disclosure of information acquired under the Schedule is also made a criminal offence. Provision is made with respect to penalties and proceedings for offences under these Regulations.

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