Criminal offence of concealing, destroying or disposing of a document
It is a criminal offence for you to conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of a document (or arrange to do so), which is:
- required to be produced by you by an information notice which has been approved by the tribunal; or
- where you have been notified by us that:
- the document is to be, or is likely to be, the subject of an information notice; and
- we intend, or are required, to seek the approval of the tribunal in relation to the giving of the information notice.
If you are convicted of such an offence you are liable:
- on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or
- on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or both.
Penalty for concealing, destroying or disposing of a document
You are liable to a penalty (see RSTP3015) if you conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of a document (or arrange to do so), which is:
- required to be produced by you by an information notice; or
- where you have been notified by us that the document is to be, or is likely to be, the subject of an information notice.
Circumstances where the criminal offence and penalty do not apply
You do not commit an offence or are not liable to a penalty where you conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of a document:
- that has been produced to us following an information notice, unless we have notified you that the document must continue to be available for inspection (if we decide at a later date that the original document need no longer be kept then we will withdraw the notification);
- where more than six months have passed since you produced a copy of the document in response to an information notice and we have not asked you to produce the original (see RSTP2017); or
where more than six months have passed since we last notified you that the document may be included in an information notice and it has not been included in a notice.
Ref ID
RSTP2018
Last updated