Companies Act 1985

450 Punishment for destroying, mutilating etc. company documents

(1) A person, being an officer of any such body as is mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (d) of section 447(1) or a body other than as there mentioned, being an insurance company to which Part II of the [1982 c. 50.] Insurance Companies Act 1982 applies, who—

(a) destroys, mutilates or falsifies, or is privy to the destruction, mutilation or falsification of a document affecting or relating to the body's property or affairs, or

(b) makes, or is privy to the making of, a false entry in such a document,

is guilty of an offence, unless he proves that he had no intention to conceal the state of affairs of the body or to defeat the law.

(2) Such a person as above mentioned who fraudulently either parts with, alters or makes an omission in any such document or is privy to fraudulent parting with, fraudulent altering or fraudulent making of an omission in, any such document, is guilty of an offence.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable to imprisonment or a fine, or both.

(4) Sections 732 (restriction on prosecutions) and 733(2) and (4) (liability of individuals for corporate default) apply to an offence under this section.