UK Offence Report

Destruction of illegal imports

regulation 6(8) of The Food (Hot Chilli and Hot Chilli Products) (Emergency Control) (Wales) Regulations 2003

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

8 Any person who breaches the terms of

a notice served under paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding three months.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 6(8)?

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 breaches the terms of a notice served under paragraph (1).
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Food (Hot Chilli and Hot Chilli Products) (Emergency Control) (Wales) Regulations 2003.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2003-09-25); 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Food (Chilli, Chilli Products, Curcuma and Palm Oil) (Emergency Control) (Wales) Regulations 2005 (revoked)
Revoked on
10 June 2005
Made
24 September 2003
In force from
25 September 2003
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which apply in relation to Wales only, implement Commission Decision 2003/460/EC on emergency measures regarding hot chilli and hot chilli products (OJ No. L154, 21.6.2003, p.114) as corrected by a corrigendum published on 25 July 2003 (OJ No. L186, 25.7.2003, p.47). The Regulations — a prohibit the importation of “controlled hot chilli and hot chilli products” (defined in regulation 2(1)), except where they are accompanied by an analytical report demonstrating that the product does not contain Sudan 1 (CAS No. 842 – 07 – 09) (regulation 3); b provide for their enforcement (regulation 4); c apply with modifications certain provisions of the Food Safety Act for the purposes of the Regulations and provide for sampling and analysis (regulation 5); and d provide for the destruction of illegal imports of controlled hot chilli and hot chilli products (regulation 6). The CN codes referred to in the definition of “hot chilli and hot chilli products” are the code numbers of the combined nomenclature established by Regulation 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the customs tariff (OJ No. L256, 7.9.87, p.1). No regulatory appraisal has been prepared in relation to these Regulations.

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 is “guilty of 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