UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Neil Swift, Jasvinder Nakhwal, Charlotte Tregunna and Rachel Cook, Peters & Peters
• British overseas territories citizen • Individual ordinarily resident in the UK • UK-incorporated entity • Scottish partnership
1985 (“CA 1985”), it is an offence for an officer of a company to destroy, mutilate or falsify a document affecting or relating to the company’s property or affairs, or to make a false entry in such a docu - ment. A defence is available if the officer can show that they had no intention to conceal the state of affairs of the company. • Failure to preserve accounting records: Under Sec - tion 389 of the CA 2006, it is an offence for a com - pany to fail to preserve accounting records for the statutory periods (three years for private compa - nies and six years for public companies). Officers in default may face similar penalties as those under Section 387. Additionally, officers who intentionally cause or fail to take reasonable steps to prevent such defaults may also be prosecuted. • False accounting: Under Section 17 of the Theft Act 1968, false accounting is an offence where a person dishonestly falsifies, destroys or conceals accounting records with the intent to gain or cause loss. This offence is distinct from the CA 2006 pro - visions and carries its own penalties. There are numerous additional offences relating to financial record-keeping under the CA 1985 and CA 2006. Directors may also face criminal liability for malprac - tice in relation to accounting records, including fail - ing to ensure compliance with statutory requirements or engaging in fraudulent activities. This can include offences under the Insolvency Act 1986, such as fal - sifying records during insolvency proceedings. 2.4 Public Officials Corrupt conduct by public officials is covered by sev - eral offences under UK legislation. There are, however, no specific offences relating to the misappropriation of funds by a public official, the unlawful taking of inter - est by a public official, embezzlement of public funds by a public official, or favouritism by a public official. Broadly, the general common law offence of miscon - duct in public office can cover the types of conduct stated above. An offence is committed when a pub - lic officer, acting as such, wilfully neglects to perform their duty or wilfully misconducts themselves, to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of public trust,
An offence is committed under Section 7 irrespective of whether the acts or omissions which form part of the offence took place in the UK or elsewhere. 2.2 Influence-Peddling Influence-peddling is not explicitly recognised as a standalone offence in the UK. However, certain activi - ties that could be characterised as influence-peddling may be caught by other offences, depending on the circumstances. Influence-peddling is not defined in UK law, but con - duct indicative of influence-peddling is generally understood to be the use of influence on decision- making in exchange for money or favours. Under the BA 2010, offences such as bribing another person or bribing a foreign public official may encom - pass such conduct. Under Section 6 of the BA 2010, a person who bribes a foreign public official is liable if the person’s intention is to influence the foreign public official in their capacity as such. Under Section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, a person is liable if they facilitate the making of donations to a registered party from an impermissible source. 2.3 Financial Record-Keeping Financial record-keeping offences in the UK primarily arise under the Companies Act 2006 (“CA 2006”) and other related legislation. Key offences include: • Failure to keep adequate accounting records: Under Section 387 of the CA 2006, it is an offence for a company to fail to comply with the duty to keep adequate accounting records. Every officer in default commits an offence. A defence is avail - able if the officer can demonstrate that they acted honestly and that the default was excusable in the circumstances. • Destruction, mutilation or falsification of docu - ments: Under Section 450 of the Companies Act
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