UK Offence Report

False Representations

regulation 7(1) of The Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) Removed Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2008

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 A person who makes any representation under regulation

3 or 4, or under the Schedule so far as it relates to an appeal, which is false in

a material particular and does so recklessly or knowing it to be false in that particular, is guilty of 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
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 (knowing it to be, recklessly).

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: recklessly, knowing it to be.

What would breach regulation 7(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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) Removed Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2008.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2008-03-31); 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 Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) Removed Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2013
Made
6 March 2008
In force from
31 March 2008
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 are made under powers conferred upon the Secretary of State for Transport by section 101B of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The functions of the Secretary of State for Transport and of the Lord Chancellor in relation to sections 99 to 103 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 were transferred to the National Assembly for Wales under the provisions of the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 2004 (S.I. 2004/3044). These powers were subsequently transferred to the Welsh Ministers by virtue of paragraph 30 of Schedule 11 to the Government of Wales Act 2006. The Regulations provide for the making of representations and appeals against charges for the removal, storage and disposal of a vehicle removed under that Act from an area which is a civil enforcement area for parking contraventions in accordance with Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. These Regulations are to be read in conjunction with the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (General Provisions)(Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/614 (W.66), the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/608) and the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Penalty Charge Notices, Enforcement and Adjudication)(Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/609). Regulation 3 specifies the persons to whom the regulation applies, requires such persons to be informed of their right to make representations and to appeal to an adjudicator, confers on such persons a right to make representations in a form specified by the enforcement authority and specifies the basis on which they may be made. Regulation 4 specifies the duties of an enforcement authority in relation to representations received by it under regulation 3 and Regulation 5 confers a right to appeal to an adjudicator where the enforcement authority rejects representations made to it under regulation 3. Regulation 6 applies the Schedule to the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Representations and Appeals)(Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/608) to procedure and the service of documents in adjudicator proceedings under these Regulations. Regulation 7 creates an offence of making false representations under regulation 4 or regulation 5. A full Regulatory Impact Assessment and Explanatory Memorandum can be obtained from the Integrated Transport Unit, Transport, Planning and Administration Division, Transport Wales, Welsh Assembly Government, Crown Offices, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ or on the Welsh Assembly Government website at http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/buslegislation/bus/bus-legislation-sub/bus-legislation-sub-annulment.htm

Read the full note and every offence in this 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