UK Offence Report

Circumventing prohibitions etc.

article 9 of The Iran (Financial Sanctions) Order 2007 (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

9 A person is guilty of an offence if he participates, knowingly and intentionally, in activities the object or effect of which is, directly or indirectly, to— a circumvent a prohibition in article 6(1) or 7(1), or b enable or facilitate the commission of an offence under article 6 or 7.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally, knowingly).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, intentionally.

What would breach article 9?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Iran (Financial Sanctions) Order 2007.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
1 year

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

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
7 February 2007
In force from
9 February 2007
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 section 1 of the United Nations Act 1946, gives effect in the United Kingdom to resolution 1737(2006) of the Security Council of the United Nations adopted on 23rd December 2006 (“the Resolution”). Under the Resolution, various persons are designated in an Annex and the Security Council and a committee of the Security Council (the “Committee”) can designate persons. States are required to take measures in respect of any designated person and any person or entity acting on his behalf or at his direction, or by entities owned or controlled by him. The measures include the freezing of funds, financial assets and economic resources of such persons and ensuring that any funds, financial assets and economic resources are not made available to them or for their benefit. The Security Council and the Committee can designate persons who are engaged in, directly associated with or providing support for Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or the development of nuclear weapons delivery systems. Article 3 of this Order provides that the persons designated in the Annex to the Resolution, by the Security Council, the Committee or, in accordance with article 4, the Treasury are designated persons for the purposes of the Order. Article 4 provides that the Treasury can give directions to designate persons for the purposes of the Order if one of the specified conditions is fulfilled in respect of the person. The conditions are that the Treasury have reasonable grounds to suspect that the person is or may be a person designated in the Annex to the Resolution; by the Security Council or the Committee; a person acting on behalf of or at the direction of any such person or a person owned or controlled by any such person. Article 5 makes further provision about the Treasury’s directions, including a requirement for the Treasury to take the steps which they consider appropriate to publicise the direction. This article also includes provision about appeals. Article 6 prohibits any dealing with funds, financial assets and economic resources of designated persons. The article makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 7 prohibits making funds, financial assets or economic resources available to designated persons. The article makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 9 makes it a criminal offence to circumvent the prohibitions or to facilitate the commission of an offence relating to a prohibition. Article 10 provides a licensing procedure to enable, for humanitarian and other purposes, certain acts to be exempted from the prohibitions in articles 6 and 7. Article 15 gives the Treasury power to delegate its functions under the Order. Article 17 confirms that the provisions of this Order apply to the Crown but, in the event of a contravention, the Crown is not criminally liable. The Schedule makes provision about information and evidence. A partial regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business may be obtained from the Asset Freezing Unit of the Financial Crime Team, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ and is also available on HM Treasury’s website (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk). A copy of the regulatory impact assessment has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

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