Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Act 2021
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Offences by bodies corporate, etc. | ||
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20. (1) Where a relevant offence is committed for the benefit of a body corporate by a relevant person and the commission of the relevant offence is attributable to the failure, by a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, to exercise, at the time of the commission of the relevant offence and in all the circumstances of the case, the requisite degree of supervision or control of the relevant person, the body corporate shall be guilty of an offence. | ||
(2) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (1), it shall be a defence for a body corporate against which such proceedings are brought to prove that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence. | ||
(3) Where a relevant offence is committed by a body corporate and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or was attributable to any wilful neglect, of a person who was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, that person shall, as well as the body corporate, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence. | ||
(4) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (3) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate. | ||
(5) Subsection (1)— | ||
(a) is without prejudice to the other circumstances, under the general law, whereby acts or omissions of a natural person are attributed to a body corporate resulting in criminal liability of that body corporate for those acts or omissions, and | ||
(b) does not exclude criminal proceedings against natural persons who are involved as perpetrators, inciters or accessories in an offence referred to in that subsection. | ||
(6) A body corporate guilty of an offence under subsection (1) shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a class A fine and, on conviction on indictment, to a fine. | ||
(7) In this section— | ||
“relevant offence” means— | ||
(b) an offence of aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring or attempting the commission of an offence under section 6 , 7 or 8 ; | ||
“relevant person”, in relation to a body corporate, means— | ||
(a) a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, or | ||
(b) an employee, subsidiary or agent of the body corporate; | ||
“subsidiary”, in relation to a body corporate, has the same meaning as it has in the Companies Act 2014 . |