Criminal Justice Act 2013

Offences

29. (1) A person who fails to comply with a direction to which he or she is subject shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

(2) A person who intentionally hinders the compliance by an undertaking with a direction shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

(3) A person who contravenes section 25 (1) or paragraph (b) or (c) of section 25 (2) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

(4) A person who contravenes section 26 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

(5) (a) Where an offence under subsection (1), (2), (3) or (4) is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any wilful neglect on the part of, any person, being a director, manager, secretary or any other officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall 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.

(b) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (a) 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.

(6) A court hearing proceedings for an offence under this section, including any appeal or subsequent proceedings, may, on its own motion or on the application of the Director of Public Prosecutions, order that the proceedings, or part of them, be held otherwise than in public.