UK Offence Report

Freezing funds and economic resources

article 4(2) of The Lebanon and Syria (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2006

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 A person who contravenes the prohibition in paragraph (1) 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 4(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 contravenes the prohibition in paragraph (1).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Lebanon and Syria (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2006, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. 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
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
6 months

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
14 February 2006
In force from
16 February 2006
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order, made under section 1 of the United Nations Act 1946, gives effect in the territories listed in Schedule 1 to Resolution 1636(2005) adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations on 31st October 2005. The Security Council has decided that all states are to take certain measures against individuals suspected of an involvement in the terrorist bombing in Beirut, Lebanon on 14th February 2005. A Committee of the Security Council, established under the Security Council Resolution, will register the details of the individuals to which the measures are to apply. The measures include the freezing of funds, financial assets and economic resources of such individuals and ensuring that any funds, financial assets and economic resources are not made available to them. Article 3 of this Order requires the Governor of each territory to maintain a list of individuals registered by the Committee of the Security Council (“designated persons”) and to publish the list in the official gazette of the Territory. Article 4 prohibits any dealing with funds, financial assets and economic resources of designated persons, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 5 prohibits making funds, financial assets and economic resources available to designated persons, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 7 makes it a criminal offence to circumvent the prohibitions or to facilitate the commission of an offence relating to a prohibition. Article 8 gives the Governor power to direct that a person suspected of being owned or controlled by a designated person or of acting on behalf of or at the direction of a designated person is to be treated for the purposes of the prohibitions and offences as if he were a designated person. It also creates an appeal process in respect of any such direction. Article 9 provides a licensing procedure to enable, for humanitarian purposes, certain acts to be exempted from the prohibitions. The Schedule makes provisions about information and evidence. A list of designated persons and any persons who are the subject of a direction made under article 8 will be made available on the Internet at: www.bankofengland.co.uk.

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