Banking Act 1979

41 Offences

(1) Where an offence under this Act 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, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) above shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

(3) In any proceedings for an offence under this Act it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of such an offence by himself or any person under his control.

(4) Without prejudice to subsection (3) above, in any proceedings for an offence under section 34 or section 36 above committed by the publication of an advertisement it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he is a person whose business is to publish or arrange for the publication of advertisements and that he received the advertisement for publication in the ordinary course of business and did not know and had no reason to suspect that its publication would amount to such an offence.

(5) No proceedings for an offence under this Act shall be instituted—

(a) in England and Wales, except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Bank; or

(b) in Northern Ireland, except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland or the Bank.

(6) Summary proceedings for any offence under this Act may, without prejudice to any jurisdiction exercisable apart from this subsection, be taken against an institution, including an unincorporated institution, at any place at which it has a place of business, and against an individual at any place at which he is for the time being.