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The Serious Crime Act 2007 made two major contributions to English criminal law. First, Part 1 established Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPOs) — civil orders that can impose wide-ranging restrictions on individuals the court is satisfied have been involved in serious crime, as a preventive measure against future offending. SCPOs are made by the Crown Court or High Court on application by the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Director of the Serious Fraud Office. Second, and more academically influential, Part 2 created three new statutory inchoate offences replacing the common law offence of incitement: intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence (s.44); encouraging or assisting an offence believing it will be committed (s.45); and encouraging or assisting offences believing one or more will be committed (s.46). These offences apply even if the anticipated principal offence is never committed. The Act abolished the common law incitement offence in s.59. The Part 2 offences are broad and controversial — they can result in conviction where the anticipated offence was not committed and the principal offender was never identified. The mens rea differs between the three offences, with s.44 requiring intention and ss.45-46 requiring only belief.
Pwyntiau allweddol
- Section 44: offence of intentionally encouraging or assisting another to commit an offence — D must intend to encourage or assist and (if capable of being absent) intend that the act be done with the necessary mental element
- Section 45: offence of encouraging or assisting an offence believing it will be committed — D believes the offence will be committed and believes their act will encourage or assist; does not require proof that D intended the offence to be committed
- Section 46: offence of encouraging or assisting offences believing one or more will be committed — covers situations where D believes at least one of a number of specified offences will be committed; widest of the three offences
- No requirement for the principal offence to be committed — Part 2 offences are inchoate and complete on the act of encouraging or assisting (s.49(1))
- Section 59: abolishes the common law offence of incitement (now replaced by ss.44-46)
- Part 1 — Serious Crime Prevention Orders: Crown Court or High Court may make an SCPO where satisfied (civil standard) that a person has been involved in serious crime; orders may prohibit specified activities, travel, financial dealings, or associations
- Section 2: SCPO breach is a criminal offence carrying maximum 5 years' imprisonment on indictment
Rhannau ac adrannau
Hanes diwygiadau
2015 — Serious Crime Act 2015
Added the offence of participating in activities of an organised crime group (s.45 SCA 2015), strengthened SCPO provisions, created new offences of computer misuse, and extended the extra-territorial reach of serious crime offences.
2015 — Serious Crime Act 2015
Inserted new safeguards and reporting requirements into the SCPO regime and clarified the standard of proof for SCPO applications in the Crown Court following the case of R v Hancox [2010] EWCA Crim 102.