UK Offence Report

Freezing funds and economic resources of designated persons

regulation 6(3) of The Burma/Myanmar (Financial Restrictions) Regulations 2009 (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

3 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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.

What would breach regulation 6(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. 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 Burma/Myanmar (Financial Restrictions) Regulations 2009, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
17 June 2009
In force from
18 June 2009
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 enforce provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No. 194/2008 of 25th February 2008 (O.J. L 66, 10.3.2008, p.1) (“the EC Regulation”) which relate to restrictive measures imposed against persons listed by the Council as responsible in Burma/Myanmar for the lack of progress towards democratisation and continuing violations of human rights law. The measures include the freezing of funds and economic resources of such persons and ensuring that any funds and economic resources are not made available to them or for their benefit. The measures also include restrictions on financing of certain enterprises. The persons against whom the asset freeze measures are to apply are listed in Annex VI to the EC Regulation and the enterprises against whom the restrictions on financing are to apply are listed in Annexes V and VII. The Annexes are updated from time to time in accordance with Council Common Position 2007/750/CFSP of 19th November 2007 (O.J. L 308, 26.11.2007, p.1). Part 2 defines designated persons (regulation 3) and provides for the Treasury to make directions designating a person (regulation 4). Part 3 gives effect to Article 11(1) of the EC Regulation by prohibiting any dealing with funds and economic resources of designated persons (regulation 6) and to Article 11(2) of the EC Regulation by prohibiting the making of funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to designated persons (regulation 7). Breach of either prohibition is a criminal offence, as is the circumvention of a prohibition (regulation 9). Regulation 10 provides a licensing procedure, for the purposes of Article 13 of the EC Regulation, to enable, for humanitarian purposes, certain acts to be exempted from the prohibitions in regulations 6 and 7. Part 4 defines designated enterprises as persons listed in Annex V or VII of the EC Regulation and provides for the Treasury to make directions identifying an enterprise as such. Part 5 gives effect to Article 15(2) of the EC Regulation by prohibiting the financing of designated enterprises and makes it a criminal offence to contravene or circumvent the prohibition. Part 6 includes provisions relating to penalties and proceedings. The Schedule makes provisions about information gathering. A list of designated persons and a list of designated enterprises are available on the Internet at: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/fin_sanctions_index.htm. An impact assessment on the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business may be obtained from the Asset Freezing Unit, 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 impact assessment is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available on the OPSI website (www.opsi.gov.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