UK Offence Report

Any person who— a without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified…

paragraph 3 of SCHEDULE 3 of The Democratic Republic of the Congo (United Nations Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2005

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

3 Any person who—

a without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within

a reasonable time) to comply with any request made under this Schedule by any person who is empowered to make it; or

b furnishes any information or produces any document which to his knowledge is false in

a material particular or recklessly furnishes any document or information which is false in

a material particular to such

a person in response to such

a request; or

c otherwise wilfully obstructs any person in the exercise of his powers under this Schedule; or

d with intent to evade the provisions of this Schedule, destroys, mutilates, defaces, secretes or removes any document, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (recklessly, wilfully, with intent to).

“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: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: wilfully, with intent to, recklessly; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

3 Any person who— a without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within a reasonable time) to comply with any request made under this Schedule by any person who is empowered to make it; or b furnishes any information or produc

What would breach paragraph 3 of SCHEDULE 3?

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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Democratic Republic of the Congo (United Nations Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2005.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
2 years

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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 Democratic Republic of the Congo (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2015 (revoked)
Revoked on
8 July 2015
Made
7 June 2005
In force from
9 June 2005
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. The instrument gives effect in part to Resolution 1596 (2005) adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations on 18th April 2005. UNSCR 1596 (2005) amongst other things imposes financial sanctions against persons designated as acting in violation of the arms embargo by the Sanctions Committee established by Resolution 1533 (2004).

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