UK Offence Report

Contravention and circumvention of prohibitions

regulation 4(1) of The Ukraine (European Union Financial Sanctions) (No.3) Regulations 2014 (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 (“P”) who contravenes any of the prohibitions in regulation

3 commits an offence unless P did not know, or had no reasonable cause to suspect that P’s actions would contravene regulation 3.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Objective fault
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened and that it fell below the standard the provision sets. That is an objective test - what a reasonable person in the same position would have done, not what this defendant actually thought.

What a person personally believed or intended is not the question; the standard is what was reasonable.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: objective standard in the offence-creating words: reasonable cause to suspect.

What would breach regulation 4(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 regulation 3.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Ukraine (European Union Financial Sanctions) (No.3) Regulations 2014, 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
1 August 2014
In force from
1 August 2014
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 (EU) No. No. 833/2014 dated 31 July 2014 (OJ L 229, 31.7.2014, p.1) concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine (“the Council Regulation”). Regulation 3 provides for prohibitions against dealing with transferable securities and money-market instruments for, or on behalf of major credit institutions or other major institutions having an explicit mandate to promote competitiveness of the Russian economy, its diversification and encouragement of investment, established in Russia withover 50 % public ownership or control issued after 1 August 2014, as listed in Annex III to the Council Regulation. The prohibitions include buying, selling, providing brokering or assistance in the issuance of, or otherwise dealing in transferable securities and money-market instruments. Regulation 4 makes it an offence to breach any of the prohibitions in regulation 3, or to seek to circumvent those provisions. Regulations 5 to 8 contain provisions about penalties, proceedings and who, in relation to bodies corporate and other bodies, may be prosecuted for an offence under the Regulations. The Schedule makes provision for information gathering and information disclosure. It also creates offences relating to the withholding of information and the obstruction of the exercise by the Treasury of its powers under the Schedule. A list of major credit institutions or other major institutions listed in Annex III to the Council Regulation is available on the internet via: (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-sanctions-consolidated-list-of-targets) or can be obtained from Financial Sanctions, H.M. Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ. Further information is available from Financial Sanctions, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ and on the H.M. Treasury website (www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury).

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