Part XIV Investigation of Companies and Their Affairs; Requisition of Documents
Requisition and seizure of books and papers
450 Punishment for destroying, mutilating, etc. company documents.
F1(1)
An officer of a company. . . who—
(a)
destroys, mutilates or falsifies, or is privy to the destruction, mutilation or falsification of a document affecting, or relating to the F2company’s property or affairs, or
(b)
makes, or is privy to the making of, a false entry in such a document,
is guilty of an offence, unless he proves that he had no intention to conceal the state of affairs of F3the company or to defeat the law.
F4(1A)
Subsection (1) applies to an officer of an authorised insurance company which is not a body corporate as it applies to an officer of a company.
(2)
Such a person as above mentioned who fraudulently either parts with, alters or makes an omission in any such document or is privy to fraudulent parting with, fraudulent altering or fraudulent making of an omission in, any such document, is guilty of an offence.
(3)
A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable to imprisonment or a fine, or both.
F5(4)
Sections 732 (restriction on prosecutions), 733 (liability of individuals for corporate default) and 734 (criminal proceedings against unincorporated bodies) apply to an offence under this section.
F6(5)
In this section “document” includes information recorded in any form.