# The Rural Development Grants (Agriculture) (No. 2) Regulations 1995, Regulation 12: Offences and penalties


(1) Any person who, for the purposes of obtaining assistance for himself or any other person, knowingly or recklessly makes a statement which is false or misleading in a material particular, shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
(2) Any person who—
(a) fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement imposed by or under regulation 9 or by regulation 10;
(b) intentionally obstructs an authorised officer (or a person accompanying and acting under his instructions) in the exercise of his powers under regulation 9,
shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3) Proceedings for an offence under paragraph (1) or (2) may, subject to paragraph (4), be commenced within the period of six months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the prosecutor to justify the proceedings comes to his knowledge.
(4) No proceedings for an offence under paragraph (1) or (2) shall be commenced more than three years after the commission of the offence.
(5) For the purposes of this regulation, where the proceedings are instituted by the Minister—
(a) a certificate signed by or on behalf of the prosecutor and stating the date on which evidence sufficient in his opinion to warrant the proceedings came to his knowledge shall be conclusive evidence of that fact;
(b) a certificate stating that matter and purporting to be so signed shall be deemed to be so signed unless the contrary is proved.
(6) Where an offence under this regulation which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of that body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in such capacity, he as well as that body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(7) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (6) shall apply in relation to acts and defaults of a member in connection with his management functions as if he were a director of that body corporate.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/2202/regulation/12 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/rural-development-grants-agriculture-no-2-regulations-1995/regulation-12
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.