Section 113: Offences
636.Subsection (1) establishes that failure, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any prohibition, restriction or condition of a full or interim VOO is a criminal offence. Under subsection (2), a failure to comply with a notification requirement, without reasonable excuse, in also an offence. Offences apply throughout the UK even though VOOs can be imposed only by courts in England and Wales.
637.Where the offender has failed to comply with a notification requirement subsection (4) provides that the offence of failing to give a notification continues throughout the period during which the required notification is not given. An offender cannot be prosecuted more than once for the same failure.
638.An offence will not be committed where the person has a “reasonable excuse” for failure to comply with a term of an order, or a notification requirement. This might be, for example, where an offender does not provide the information in the required time scale because he is in hospital following an accident.
