UK Offence Report

The touting offence

article 3(4) of The Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act 2008 (Ticket Touting Offence) (England and Wales and Northern Ireland) Order 2012

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

4 A person convicted of the touting offence is liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 article 3(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act 2008 (Ticket Touting Offence) (England and Wales and Northern Ireland) Order 2012.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2012-11-29); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
16 July 2012
In force from
29 November 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 which is necessary or expedient in consequence of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act 2008 (“the Act”). Section 17 of the Act makes it an offence in the law of Scotland to tout a Commonwealth Games ticket and this applies to acts done in or outwith Scotland. Section 18 provides an exception for certain advertisers. Section 19 enables the Scottish Ministers, by regulations, to specify circumstances in which making facilities available in connection with electronic communications or the storage of data is not capable of constituting an offence under section 17 as it applies in the law of Scotland. Section 20 makes further provision in relation to the authorisation of ticket sales by the Organising Committee under the Act. Article 3 of this Order makes it an offence (“the touting offence”) under the law of England and Wales and the law of Northern Ireland to tout a Commonwealth Games ticket within the meaning of section 17(2) of the Act in relation to acts done in or outside these areas of the United Kingdom. The Order ceases to have effect on the same day as the Act ceases to have effect. Article 4 disapplies the offence in relation to acts done by the Organising Committee or the Commonwealth Games Federation, and acts otherwise done in accordance with an authorisation given by the Organising Committee. It also enables the Organising Committee to apply conditions in relation to such authorisations. Article 5 provides an exception for certain advertisers in the same terms as section 18 of the Act. Article 6 provides that if an information society service provider based in the United Kingdom does anything in a state (other than, in the United Kingdom, the areas of England and Wales and Northern Ireland) that is a member of the European Economic Area which is capable of constituting the touting offence in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, proceedings for the touting offence may be taken at any place in England, Wales or Northern Ireland in which the conduct in question is capable of constituting the touting offence and may be treated as having been committed at any such place. Article 7 provides that proceedings for the touting offence cannot be taken against an information society service provider based in a state (other than the United Kingdom) that is a member of the European Economic Area in respect of anything done by the provider in providing that service, unless the derogation and cooperation conditions are met. Articles 8 to 10 specify circumstances involving mere conduit, caching and hosting of information society services which are not capable of constituting the touting offence. These provisions comply with Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services in the Internal Market (OJ L 178, 17.7.2000, p.1).

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction
Confidence
0.72 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