POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Tomasz Konopka, Katarzyna Randzio-Sajkowska and Jakub Kocuba, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
5.2 Guidelines Applicable to the Assessment of Penalties
exceeds PLN10 million, the penalty is five to 25 years’ imprisonment. Misappropriation and Embezzlement The penalty for misappropriation is deprivation of liberty for up to three years. Embezzlement is penalised by deprivation of liberty for between three months and five years. In a case of lesser gravity, the perpetrator of misappropriation is subject to a fine, the penalty of limitation of lib - erty, or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to one year. However, if an offence of misappropriation or embezzlement is committed with regard to a property of substantial value (ie, exceeding PLN200,000), the perpetrator is subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for between one and ten years. Since the amendment to the CC, which entered into force on 1 October 2023 (see 1.4 Recent Key Amendments to National Leg- islation ), the perpetrator of a misappropriation or embezzlement offence involving property with a value of more than PLN5 million is liable to imprisonment for between three and 20 years, and for property with a value of more than PLN10 million is liable to imprisonment for between five and 25 years. Financial Record-Keeping As regards keeping inaccurate financial records, whoever, despite an obligation, does not keep books or keeps books inaccurately, is subject to the penalty of a fine of up to 240 daily rates. (In Poland, a fine is imposed in daily rates by specifying the number of daily rates and the value of one daily rate. The value of one daily rate may not be less than PLN10 and more than PLN2,000.) In cases of lesser gravity, the behav - iour is treated as a petty tax offence and is pun - ishable by a fine of between one-tenth and 20 times the minimum monthly wage.
As described in 1.3 Guidelines for the Interpre- tation and Enforcement of National Legislation , the court imposes the punishment according to its own discretion but within the limits prescribed by law. The minimum and maximum penalties are provided under law. Repeat or Regular Offences Repeat offences are more severely punished. If a perpetrator previously sentenced to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for an intentional crime commits another intentional crime similar to the one for which they were sentenced, within a period of five years of serving at least six months of the penalty, the court may impose a penalty exceeding by half the upper limit of the statutory penalty provided for the crime attributed to the perpetrator. The provisions regarding a penalty being imposed also apply to perpetrators who com - mit crimes as a regular source of income. Fur - thermore, under the CC, two or more actions performed within a short time interval, pursuant to a premeditated intent, are deemed to con - stitute a single prohibited act. In practice, such a situation might result in one or more severe sanctions. Motivation and Manner of Conduct The CC provides for general guidelines (also applied in bribery and corruption cases) which state that, while imposing a penalty, the court pays particular attention to the perpetrator’s motivation and manner of conduct, such as: • the type and degree of violation of the perpe - trator’s duties; • the type and extent of the negative conse - quences of the crime;
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