UK Offence Report

Contravention and circumvention of prohibitions

regulation 24(2) of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (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

2 A person commits an offence who intentionally participates in activities knowing that the object or effect of them is (whether directly or indirectly)— a to circumvent any of the prohibitions in regulations 3 to 8, 10 to 19, 21 and 22, or b to enable or facilitate the contravention of any such prohibition or requirement.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 (intentionally, knowing that).

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: intentionally, knowing that.

What would breach regulation 24(2)?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (European Union Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2017, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
28 February 2017
In force from
1 March 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 (EC) No. 329/2007 dated 27th March 2007 (OJ L 88, 29.3.2007, p1) concerning restrictive measures against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK”) (“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. They also include broader financial sanctions measures. The Council Regulation has been amended recently by Council Regulation (EU) No 2017/330 (OJ L 50 28.2.2017, p1) of 27th February 2017. The amendments include changes to and the imposition of additional financial sanctions measures relating to the actions of credit and financial institutions, limiting bank accounts for North Korean diplomats and limiting any use of real property by North Korean diplomats for only diplomatic and consular purposes. Regulation 2 defines designated person as any person named in Annex IV, V or Va to the Council Regulation (as amended from time to time). Annex IV includes those persons listed by the United Nations Security Council, Annex V includes those persons listed by the Council of the European Union and Annex Va includes those persons working on behalf of or at the direction of a person listed in Annex IV or V or those persons assisting in the evasion of sanctions or violating the provisions of the Council Regulation. 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 that the Treasury may direct that the provisions of regulations 4 to 7 apply in relation to a person as if that person were a designated person. Regulation 9 provides an exception to the prohibitions in regulations 4 and 5 where a frozen account is credited for a permitted reason. Regulations 10 to 18 place restrictions upon dealing with DPRK entities in financial services and markets. They include prohibitions on credit and financial institutions within the EU opening accounts or forming business relationships with DPRK entities, require the termination of existing accounts and relationships, prohibit the acquisitions of bonds, and prohibit investment and financial support for trade. Regulation 19 prohibits any transfers of funds to or from the DPRK unless exceptions apply, and regulation 20 details the procedure for authorisation of transfers when it is required. Regulation 21 prohibits DPRK diplomatic missions, consular posts, diplomats and consular officials from holding a bank account without a licence from the Treasury. Regulation 22 prohibits the DPRK from using any real property, and any person from making real property available to the DPRK, for anything except diplomatic and consular purposes. Regulation 23 provides a licensing procedure to enable funds and economic resources to be exempted from the various prohibitions. Regulation 24 makes it an offence to breach any of the prohibitions laid out in the Regulations, or to seek to circumvent those provisions. Regulations 25 to 28 contain provision about penalties, proceedings and who, in relation to bodies corporate and other bodies, may be prosecuted for an offence under the Regulations. Regulation 32 revokes the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (European Union Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2013 and its amending Regulations. These Regulations revoke the 2013 Regulations and consolidate their substantive provisions. Regulation 33 provides that licences and authorisations 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.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-sanctions-consolidated-list-of-targets. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the costs of business or the voluntary sector is foreseen. Further information is available from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ and on the Treasury’s website (www.gov.uk/government/ organisations/office-of-financial-sanctions-implementation/about).

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