Finance Act 2014

Offences and evidence

178 Offences by bodies corporate

Where an offence under this Part is committed by a body corporate, every person who at the date of the commission of the offence is a director, general manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate (or purporting to act in such a capacity) is also guilty of the offence unless—

(a) the offence is committed without the person’s consent or connivance, and

(b) the person has exercised all such diligence to prevent its commission as the person ought to have exercised, having regard to the nature of the person’s functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.

179 Protection of officers

Where an officer of Revenue and Customs takes any action in pursuance of instructions of the Commissioners given in connection with the enforcement of the enactments relating to general betting duty, pool betting duty or remote gaming duty and, apart from the provisions of this section, the officer would in taking that action be committing an offence under the enactments relating to betting or gaming, the officer is not guilty of that offence.

180 Evidence by certificate, etc

(1) A certificate of the Commissioners—

(a) that any notice required by or under this Part to be given to them had or had not been given at any date,

(b) that any registration required by or under this Part had or had not been effected at any date,

(c) that any return required by or under this Part had not been made at any date, or

(d) that any duty shown as due in any return made in pursuance of this Part or in any assessment made under section 12 of FA 1994 had not been paid at any date,

is sufficient evidence of that fact until the contrary is proved.

(2) A photograph of any document furnished to the Commissioners for the purposes of this Part and certified by them to be such a photograph is admissible in any proceedings, whether civil or criminal, to the same extent as the document itself.

(3) Any document purporting to be a certificate under subsection (1) or (2) is to be treated as being such a certificate until the contrary is proved.

181 Facilities capable of being used in United Kingdom: burden of proof

(1) This section applies where, in civil proceedings in any court or tribunal, it is necessary to determine whether the facilities used to make a bet or to participate in remote gaming were capable of being used in or from the United Kingdom.

(2) The burden of proof lies on any person claiming that the facilities were not capable of being so used.