UK Offence Report

Supply of restricted goods

article 4 of The Iran (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2007

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

4 1 Any person who, except under the authority of a licence granted by the Governor under this article or article 5 — a supplies or delivers; b agrees to supply or deliver; or c does any act calculated to promote the supply or delivery of, restricted goods to any person or destination in Iran shall be guilty of an offence under this Order, unless he proves that he did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that the goods in question were to be supplied or delivered to a person in Iran.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
Fault element
Objective fault
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened and that it fell below the standard the provision sets. That is an objective test - what a reasonable person in the same position would have done, not what this defendant actually thought.

What a person personally believed or intended is not the question; the standard is what was reasonable.

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: objective standard in the offence-creating words: reasonable cause to suspect.

The defence, as drafted

ion in Iran shall be guilty of an offence under this Order, unless he proves that he did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that the goods in question were to be supplied or delivered to a person in Iran.

What would breach article 4?

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. Selling the goods under the Iran (United Nations Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2007 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

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 Iran (Restrictive Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2012 (revoked)
Revoked on
12 July 2012
Made
7 February 2007
In force from
9 February 2007
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 section 1 of the United Nations Act 1946, gives effect in the territories listed in Schedule 1 to Resolution 1737(2006) adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations on 23rd December 2006. The Security Council decided that all States are to take certain measures against Iran following its failure to comply with the measures imposed by the Security Council under its Resolution 1696(2006) of 31st July 2006. The measures under Resolution 1737(2006) include a ban on the supply, sale or transfer to Iran of all specified items, materials, equipment, goods and technologies related to Iran’s nuclear enrichment-related, reprocessing or heavy water-related activities, or the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems (“restricted goods”), a ban on related assistance, a ban on procurement of restricted goods from Iran, and an asset freeze on, and prohibition on making funds available to, designated persons and entities. The Security Council or the Committee established under the Security Council Resolution or UN Member States may determine that further items, materials, equipment, goods and technologies be banned. The Security Council or the Committee may designate further persons or entities subject to the asset freeze. The substantive provisions include the following: Article 3 of this Order requires the Governor of each territory to maintain a list of persons and entities designated in the Annex to the Resolution or by the Security Council or by the Committee (“designated persons”) as subject to the asset freeze, and to publish the list in the official gazette of the Territory, as well as a list of restricted goods as necessary. Article 4 makes it a criminal offence for any person to supply restricted goods without a licence. Article 5 prohibits the exportation of restricted goods and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 6 prohibits the provision of technical or financial assistance relating to restricted goods and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 7 prohibits the use of ships, aircraft and vehicles to carry restricted goods to Iran, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 8 prohibits the procurement of restricted goods from Iran, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 9 prohibits any dealing with funds, financial assets and economic resources of designated persons, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 10 prohibits making funds, financial assets and economic resources available to designated persons, and makes it a criminal offence to contravene this prohibition. Article 12 makes it a criminal offence to circumvent the prohibitions in articles 9 and 10 or to facilitate the commission of an offence relating to these prohibitions. Article 13 gives the Governor power to direct that a person or entity suspected of being controlled or directed, or in the case of an entity, owned, controlled or directed, 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 or it were a designated person. It also creates an appeal process in respect of any such direction.. Article 14 provides a licensing procedure to enable, for humanitarian purposes, certain dealings or activities to be exempted from the asset freeze prohibitions, and certain contractual payments. Penalties applying upon conviction for offences under the Order are provided in article 23. Schedule 4 makes provision about information and evidence.

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