Keenan and Riches’BUSINESS LAW

Chapter 12Criminal liability in business

provisions examined in this chapter. Other examples

include:

1 Weights and Measures Act 1985,under which it is an

offence to sell short weight, measure or number.

2 Consumer Credit Act 1974 (as amended),which

makes it an offence to carry on a consumer credit busi-

ness without a licence (this Act is the subject of the next

chapter).

4 Property Misdescriptions Act 1991,which makes it a

criminal offence to make a false or misleading statement

about property matters in the course of an estate agency

or property development business.

5 Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package

Tours Regulations 1992 (SI 1992/3288),which makes

it an offence for an organiser or retailer of package

holidays to make a brochure available to a possible con-

sumer unless the brochure indicates in a legible, com-

prehensible and accurate manner the price and includes

specified information about the package. It is also an

offence under the regulations for an organiser or retailer

to fail to provide the consumer with information before

the contract is concluded about passport and visa re-

quirements, health formalities, arrangements for secur-

ity of money paid over, and repatriation in the event of

insolvency. It is also an offence to fail to provide the

consumer in good time before the start of the journey

with written information about the journey and the

name, address and telephone number of a representative

of the organiser on whose assistance a consumer in

difficulty can call. Other aspects of the regulations will

be considered in Chapter 14.

Criminal liability – generally

A crime is an offence against the state. The consequ-

ences of a criminal conviction are not confined to the

punishment inflicted by the court. For example, if a per-

son is convicted of theft, his name will probably appear

in the local papers causing shame and embarrassment,

and he may even lose his job. The sanctions are so severe

that the criminal law normally requires an element of

moral fault on the part of the offender. Thus, the pro-

secution must establish two essential requirements: actus

reus(prohibited act) and mens rea(guilty mind). For

367

■art 12 (food and feed exported from the EC) insofar
as it relates to food;
■art 14(1) (food safety requirement);
■art 16 (presentation) as it relates to food;
■art 18(2) and (3) (traceability) as it relates to food
business operators;
■art 19 (responsibilities for food and food business
operators).

Regulation EC 178/2002

In addition to the provisions of the Regulation EC 178/
2002, noted above, the additional requirements for busi-
nesses include:

(a) to ensure that the labelling, advertising and presen-
tation of food does not mislead consumers (art 16);
(b) to keep records of suppliers and businesses they
supply to and to make the records available to com-
petent authorities (art 18);
(c) to recall or withdraw food from the market if it is not
in compliance with food safety requirements (art 19).

Food Standards Agency

Concerns about the quality of our food in recent times
(BSE, salmonella, e-coli, etc.) led to the establishment of
the Food Standards Agency by the Food Standards Act

1999. The Food Standards Agency became operational
      on 3 April 2000. The main objective of the Agency is to
      protect public health in relation to food, and also to
      protect the wider food standards interests of consumers,
      such as labelling.
      The Agency’s functions are to:

■provide advice and information to the public and to
the government on food safety from ‘farm to fork’,
nutrition and diet;
■protect consumers through effective enforcement and
monitoring;
■support consumer choice through promoting accur-
ate and meaningful labelling.

Other criminal liability for the

supply of goods and services

The range of criminal controls over the supply of goods
and services is extensive and not confined solely to the