UK Offence Report

Contravention and circumvention of prohibitions

regulation 10(1) of The Venezuela (European Union Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2017 (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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Venezuela (European Union Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2017, 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
14 November 2017
In force from
6 December 2017
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) 2017/2063 of 13th November 2017 (OJ L 295, 14.11.2017, p. 21) (“the Council Regulation”) concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Venezuela. The measures include the freezing of funds and economic resources of any persons and entities listed in Annex IV or V to the Council Regulation and ensuring that funds and economic resources are not made available to them or for their benefit. Regulation 2 defines designated person as any person named in Annex IV or V 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, making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to a designated person and making funds or economic resources available for the benefit of a designated person. Regulation 8 provides an exception to the prohibitions in regulations 4 and 5 in the circumstances set out in the Council Regulation, 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 creates offences where the prohibitions in regulations 3 to 7 are contravened. Regulations 11 to 14 contain provisions about officers of a body corporate, penalties and proceedings. The Schedule makes provision for information gathering and information disclosure and creates offences for failure to comply with a request for information. An impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument because no impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen. Further information is available from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation at H.M. Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ and on H.M. Treasury website (www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a vote to approve it. A motion to stop it being law was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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