The Republic of Serbia (Prohibition on Investment) Regulations 1998

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Republic of Serbia (Prohibition on Investment) Regulations 1998, and shall come into force on 1st August 1998.

(2) In these Regulations, “the EC Regulation” means Council Regulation (EC) No. 1607/98 of 24th July 1998 concerning the prohibition of new investment in the Republic of Serbia(1).

Offence of breaching Article 1 of the EC Regulation

2.  Any person who commits a breach of Article 1 of the EC Regulation shall be guilty of an offence.

Authorisations

3.—(1) Authorisations for the release of funds or other financial assets on a case-by-case basis pursuant to Article 2 of the EC Regulation shall be given by or on behalf of the Treasury.

(2) If, in connection with a request for such an authorisation any person—

(a) makes any statement or furnishes any document or information which to his knowledge is false in a material particular, or

(b) recklessly makes any statement or furnishes any document or information which is false in a material particular,

he shall be guilty of an offence; and any authorisation granted pursuant to the request shall be void as from the time it was granted.

Information

4.  In accordance with Article 4 of the EC Regulation, the Schedule to these Regulations shall have effect in order to facilitate the obtaining, by or on behalf of the Treasury, of information for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the EC Regulation.

Penalties and proceedings

5.—(1) Any person guilty of an offence under regulation 2 or 3(2) above or under paragraph 2(b) or (c) of the Schedule to these Regulations shall be liable—

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or both;

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both.

(2) Any person guilty of an offence under paragraph 2(a) of the Schedule to these Regulations shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or both.

(3) Where any body corporate is guilty of an offence under these Regulations, and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(4) Proceedings against any person for an offence under these Regulations may be taken before the appropriate court in the United Kingdom having jurisdiction in the place where that person is for the time being.

(5) No proceedings for an offence under these Regulations, other than a summary offence, shall be instituted in England, Wales or Northern Ireland except by the Secretary of State or with the consent of the Attorney General or, as the case may be, the Attorney General for Northern Ireland:

• Provided that this paragraph shall not prevent the arrest, or the issue or execution of a warrant for the arrest, of any person in respect of such an offence, or the remand in custody or on bail of any person charged with such an offence, notwithstanding that the necessary consent to the institution of proceedings for the offence has not been obtained.

Amendment of S.I. 1998/1643

6.  The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia (Freezing of Funds) Regulations 1998(2) are amended, by the substitution for the words “not exceeding the statutory maximum” in regulation 4(2) of the words “not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale”.

Graham Allen

Jim Dowd

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

30th July 1998