Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024

2 Meaning of “relevant offence” E+W+N.I.

(1) For the purposes of this Act, an offence alleged to have been committed by a person is a “relevant offence” if conditions A to E are met.

(2) Condition A is that the offence was alleged to have been committed—

(a) on a date or dates falling within the period that begins with 23 September 1996 and ends with 31 December 2018, or

(b) at any time during a period that falls wholly or partly within the period mentioned in paragraph (a).

(3) Condition B is that the offence is one of the following—

(a) false accounting;

(b) fraud;

(c) handling stolen goods;

(d) money laundering;

(e) theft;

(f) an ancillary offence relating to any of those offences (see subsection (7)).

(4) Condition C is that, at the time of the alleged offence, the person—

(a) was carrying on a post office business, or

(b) was working in a post office (whether under a contract of employment or otherwise) for the purposes of a post office business.

(5) Condition D is that the person was alleged to have committed the offence in connection with carrying on, or working for the purposes of, the post office business.

(6) Condition E is that—

(a) at the time of the alleged offence, the Horizon system was being used for the purposes of the post office business, or

(b) where the offence was alleged to have been committed at any time during a period as mentioned in subsection (2)(b), the Horizon system was being used for the purposes of the post office business for the whole or part of that period.

(7) In this section—

• “ancillary offence” means—

  (a)

  an offence of attempting or conspiring to commit an offence specified in any of paragraphs (a) to (e) of subsection (3) (a “specified offence”),

  (b)

  an offence under Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 in relation to a specified offence,

  (c)

  an offence of inciting a person to commit a specified offence, or

  (d)

  an offence of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of a specified offence;

• “false accounting” means an offence of false accounting under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 or section 17 of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969;

• “fraud” means—

  (a)

  an offence of fraud under section 1(1) of the Fraud Act 2006,

  (b)

  an offence under section 15 or 15A of the Theft Act 1968 or section 15 or 15A of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 (obtaining property, etc by deception),

  (c)

  an offence under section 20(1) or (2) of the Theft Act 1968 or section 19(1) or (2) of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 (suppression, etc of documents), or

  (d)

  conspiracy to defraud;

• “handling stolen goods” means an offence of handling stolen goods under section 22 of the Theft Act 1968 or section 21 of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969;

• “money laundering” means an offence under section 327(1), 328(1) or 329(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (concealing or acquiring, etc criminal property);

• “theft” means an offence of theft under section 1(1) of the Theft Act 1968 or section 1(1) of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 2 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 11(2)