UK Offence Report

Circumvention

regulation 9 of The Zimbabwe (Financial Sanctions) 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

9 Any person who participates, knowingly and intentionally, in activities the object or effect of which is, directly or indirectly, to—

a circumvent

a prohibition in regulation 6(1) or 7(1), or

b enable or facilitate the commission of an offence under regulation

6 or 7, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 regulation 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 Zimbabwe (Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2009.

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
1 April 2009
In force from
24 April 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 the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No. 314/2004 of 19th February 2004 (O.J. L 55, 24.2.2004, p.1) (“the EC Regulation”) which relate to restrictive measures in respect of the Government of Zimbabwe and those connected with it. These Regulations replace the Zimbabwe (Freezing of Funds and Economic Resources) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/816). The measures include the freezing of funds and economic resources belonging to individual members of the Government of Zimbabwe and to persons associated with them and a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to such persons. Regulation 3 defines designated persons as any person named in Annex III to the EC Regulation (as amended from time to time) or any person who is the subject of a Treasury direction. Regulation 4 provides that the Treasury can make directions designating a person who is reasonably suspected of being a person listed in Annex III to the EC Regulation. Regulation 5 makes provision for giving notice when the Treasury make a direction under regulation 4 and regulation 15 makes further provision about notices. Regulations 6 and 7 set out the prohibitions against dealing with funds and economic resources belonging to designated persons and against making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of designated persons. Contravention of the prohibitions is an offence. Regulation 8 provides for exceptions to the prohibitions allowed by the EC Regulation. These permit the crediting of frozen accounts with interest and payments due under contracts and obligations entered into before the account became frozen, and permit a relevant institution to credit a frozen account with funds received from a third party. Regulation 9 provides that it is an offence to circumvent the prohibitions. Regulation 10 provides a licensing procedure to enable funds to be exempted from the asset freeze for certain specific purposes. These include payment of basic expenses, legal expenses, expenses for the routine holding or maintenance of frozen funds or for other extraordinary expenses. Regulations 11 to 13 contain provisions about penalties, proceedings and who, in relation to bodies corporate and other bodies, may be prosecuted for an offence under the Regulations. Regulation 16 provides that the provisions of the Regulations apply to the Crown but, in the event of a contravention, the Crown is not criminally liable. The Schedule makes provision about evidence and information gathering powers. A list of persons designated under the EC Regulation is available 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