Section 277A — Finance Act 2014: Offences relating to stop notices

Offences relating to stop notices 277A 1 A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a duty imposed under section 236B(1) is guilty of an offence.

2 The recipient of a stop notice (“ R ”) is guilty of an offence if—

a R fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a duty imposed under section 236B(3)(a), (4)(a) or (5)(a) to give a copy of the notice to another person (“ P ”),

b P subsequently fails to comply with a duty imposed under section 236B(1) in relation to the notice, and c at the time of P’s failure the stop notice continues to have effect in relation to R.

3 For the purposes of this section—

a an insufficiency of funds is not a reasonable excuse unless attributable to events outside the person's control, b if the person relies on any other person to do anything, that is not a reasonable excuse unless the first person took reasonable care to avoid the failure, c if the person had a reasonable excuse for the failure but the excuse has ceased, the person is to be treated as having continued to have the excuse if the failure is remedied without unreasonable delay after the excuse ceased, and d reliance on legal advice is to be taken automatically not to constitute a reasonable excuse where the person is a monitored promoter if either—

i the advice was not based on a full and accurate description of the facts, or ii the conclusions in the advice that the person relied on were unreasonable.