UK Offence Report

Contravention and circumvention of prohibitions

regulation 10(1) of The Belarus (Asset-Freezing) Regulations 2013 (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

1 A person who contravenes any of the prohibitions in regulations 3 to 7 commits 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses reasonable cause to suspect; which element that governs was not determined.

What would breach regulation 10(1)?

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 any of the prohibitions in regulations 3 to 7.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Belarus (Asset-Freezing) Regulations 2013, 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
29 January 2013
In force from
21 February 2013
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 make provision relating to the enforcement of Council Regulation (EC) No. 765/2006 of 18 May 2006 (OJ L 134, 20.5.2006, p.1) concerning restrictive measures in respect of Belarus (“the Council Regulation”). The measures include the freezing of funds and economic resources of designated persons and ensuring that funds and economic resources are not made available to them or for their benefit. Council Regulation (EU) No. 1014/2012 of 6 November 2012 (OJ L 307, 7.11.2012, p.1) clarifies and consolidates the criteria for listing natural or legal persons, entities and bodies in Annexes I, IA and IB to the Council Regulation and also consolidates those Annexes into a single annex, Annex I. Regulation 2 defines a designated person as any person named in Annex I to the Council Regulation (as amended from time to time). Regulations 3 to 7 provide prohibitions against dealing with the funds or economic resources of a designated person or making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of, a designated person. Regulation 8 provides an exception to the prohibitions in regulations 4 and 5 where a frozen account is credited for a permitted reason. Regulation 9 provides a licensing procedure to enable funds and economic resources to be exempted from the prohibitions. Regulation 10 makes it an offence to breach any of the prohibitions in regulations 3 to 7 or to seek to circumvent those prohibitions. Regulations 12 to 15 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 18 revokes the Belarus (Asset-Freezing) Regulations 2012 which currently make provision relating to the enforcement of the Council Regulation. Regulation 19 provides that licences which were granted under those revoked Regulations continue to have effect for the purposes of these Regulations. The Schedule makes provision for information gathering and information disclosure. A list of designated persons is available on the Internet at: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/fin_sanctions_index.htm. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is foreseen. Further information is available from the Asset Freezing Unit, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ and on HM Treasury’s website (www.hm-treasury.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