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Aiding, Abetting, Inciting or attempting Money Laundering
What does aiding, abetting, inciting or attempting Money Laundering actually mean? See the definitions in UK law here…
I remember from my police training the term ‘aid, abet, counsel or procure’. Victorian sounding phraseology that relates to how a person can become culpable for the actions of a principal offender. Interestingly UK law doesn’t distinguish the sentence a person can get from the principal offender. It can be just as severe.
What is left out of that phrase is ‘conspiracy’. That too is a method of being complicit in even an impossible to commit crime.
Aiding/Abetting someone in a criminal act is littered across UK criminal legislation. It is a well understood and used aspect of criminal law by prosecutors.
It goes right back to 1861 when an act of parliament created the Accessories and Abettors act. Due to offences within that act being obsolete nowadays, the Criminal Law Act of 1967 was established.
In R v Betts and Ridley it was found that a person need not be actually present at the time of the commission of an offence to be culpable for it. That, alongside the 6AMLD from the EU caters for mobile devices being used in one jurisdiction while the actual criminality resides in another, even when the evidence is on a server in a third. Just using a mobile device to send a text, email, telephone call or other communication can render you culpable nowadays.
Aiding and abetting requires knowledge, intent, recklessness or negligence to become culpable. So virtually every action or inaction, if it can be shown the suspect was in a frame of mind to establish any one of those four concepts the suspect is likely to at least face a trial.
The Law
1 Attempting to commit an offence.
(1)If, with intent to commit an offence to which this section applies, a person does an act which is more than merely preparatory to the commission of the offence, he is guilty of attempting to commit the offence.
(1A)Subject to section 8 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (relevance of external law), if this subsection applies to an act, what the person doing it had in view shall be treated as an offence to which this section applies.
(1B)Subsection (1A) above applies to an act if—
(a)it is done in England and Wales; and
(b)it would fall within subsection (1) above as more than merely preparatory to the commission of an offence under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 but for the fact that the offence, if completed, would not be an offence triable in England and Wales.]
(2)A person may be guilty of attempting to commit an offence to which this section applies even though the facts are such that the commission of the offence is impossible.
(3)In any case where—
(a)apart from this subsection a person’s intention would not be regarded as having amounted to an intent to commit an offence; but
(b)if the facts of the case had been as he believed them to be, his intention would be so regarded,then, for the purposes of subsection (1) above, he shall be regarded as having had an intent to commit that offence.
(4)This section applies to any offence which, if it were completed, would be triable in England and Wales as an indictable offence, other than—
(a)conspiracy (at common law or under section 1 of the M1Criminal Law Act 1977 or any other enactment);
(b)aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring or suborning the commission of an offence;
(ba)an offence under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 (c. 60) (encouraging or assisting suicide);]
(c)offences under section 4(1) (assisting offenders) or 5(1) (accepting or agreeing to accept consideration for not disclosing information about an arrestable offence) of the M2Criminal Law Act 1967.
Extended jurisdiction in relation to certain attempts.
(1)If this section applies to an act, what the person doing the act had in view shall be treated as an offence to which section 1(1) above applies.
(2)This section applies to an act if—
(a)it is done in England and Wales, and
(b)it would fall within section 1(1) above as more than merely preparatory to the commission of a Group A offence but for the fact that that offence, if completed, would not be an offence triable in England and Wales.
(3)In this section “Group A offence” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993.
(4)Subsection (1) above is subject to the provisions of section 6 of the Act of 1993 (relevance of external law).
(5)Where a person does any act to which this section applies, the offence which he commits shall for all purposes be treated as the offence of attempting to commit the relevant Group A offence.]
Conspiracy
“(1)Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, if a person agrees with any other person or persons that a course of conduct shall be pursued which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions, either—
(a)will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to the agreement, or
(b)would do so but for the existence of facts which render the commission of the offence or any of the offences impossible,he is guilty of conspiracy to commit the offence or offences in question.”
Help
Contact us if you need any assistance with the new 6AMLD provisions. We will deliver training in person, via webinar or learning portal.
