UK Offence Report

Offences related to petrochemical products listed in Annex V

article 8 of The Export Control (Iran Sanctions) Order 2012 (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

8 A person who is knowingly concerned in an activity, other than the import of goods, prohibited by any of the following Articles of the Iran Sanctions Regulation with intent to evade

a prohibition in those Articles commits an offence and may be arrested—

a Article 13(1)(b) (prohibition on purchase of petrochemical products which are located in or which originated in Iran);

b Article 13(1)(c) (prohibition on transporting petrochemical products if they originate in Iran, or are being exported from Iran to any other country);

c Article 13(1)(d) (prohibition on provision of financing or financial assistance related to the import, purchase or transport of petrochemical products of Iranian origin or that have been imported from 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
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 (knowingly, with intent to).

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, with intent to.

What would breach article 8?

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. Moving the goods across the border under the Export Control (Iran Sanctions) Order 2012 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

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
3 May 2012
In force from
1 June 2012
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 makes provision relating to the enforcement of certain restrictive measures against Iran set out in Council Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 of 23 March 2012 repealing Council Regulation (EU) No 961/2010 (OJ L 88, 24.3.2012, p1) and Council Regulation (EU) No 264/2012 of 23 March 2012 amending Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 (OJ L 87, 24.3.2012, p26) (“the Iran Regulations”). The restrictive measures include prohibitions on trade, technical assistance, financing, financial assistance and brokering in respect of the following: equipment which may be used for internal repression; goods and technology specified in the Common Military List of the European Union; telecommunications monitoring equipment for use by the Iranian regime; equipment and technology for the Iranian oil and gas industry; and newly printed or unissued Iranian denominated banknotes and minted coinage. It also includes restrictions on the trade in gold, precious metals and diamonds with the Government of Iran as well as prohibitions on the import, purchase, transport and financial assistance of Iranian crude oil or petrochemical products and on the participation in certain infrastructure projects in Iran and investments in such projects. Article 1(2) revokes the Export Control (Iran) Order 2011 (S.I. 2011/1297) which currently makes provisions for offences and penalties for contravention of the trade restrictions against Iran which have been replaced and extended by the Iran Regulations. Article 3 provides that any authorisations allowing otherwise prohibited acts which were issued under Council Regulation (EC) No 961/2010 continue to have effect for the purposes of the Iran Regulations. Articles 4 to 16 create offences for contravention of the provisions of the Iran Regulations referred to there. There are already offences relating to prohibited importation and exportation of goods in sections 50, 68 and 170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (“the 1979 Act”) (1979 c. 2). Article 17 supplements the provisions of the Iran Regulations that allow a competent authority to authorise activities that are otherwise prohibited. Article 17(1) makes it an offence knowingly and recklessly to provide false information for the purpose of obtaining an authorisation. Authorisations may be subject to requirements or conditions which continue even after the activity authorised has been carried out. Article 17(3) makes it an offence to fail to comply with such continuing requirements or conditions unless they were imposed after the activity was carried out or amended after that time in such a way as to give rise to non-compliance. Article 18 sets out the penalties relating to the offences in the Order, and makes some consequential modifications to the 1979 Act to ensure that the offences covered by that Act are subject to the same penalties as those in the Order. Article 19 ensures that the ancillary provisions which apply to the enforcement of customs and excise legislation also apply to the enforcement of the provisions of this Order. Article 20 requires the Secretary of State to review the operation and effect of this Order and publish a report within five years after it comes into force and within every five years after that. Following a review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Order should remain as it is, or be revoked or be amended. A further instrument would be needed to revoke the Order or to amend it. A regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no or minimal impact on business, charities or voluntary bodies. A copy of the Explanatory Memorandum is published alongside the Order on www.legislation.gov.uk. Further information is available from the Export Control Organisation, BIS, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET and on BIS website (w ww.bis.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 “commits 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