Section 201 | Reasonable excuse

For the purposes of sections 189(1)(a) (offence of failing to comply), 192 (criminal liability of responsible persons: no prosecution of recipient), 194 (penalty for failing to comply), 197 (penalty for disclosing) and 198 (penalty based on monies received)—

(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 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 upon were unreasonable.