Criminal conduct

Criminal conduct

For a person to be found guilty of a criminal offence it must be shown that they:

•
acted in a particular way
•
failed to act in a particular way (omission), or
•
brought about a state of affairs.

The criminal conduct of an offence is also known as the actus reus. It is the behavioural element of the offence and an essential component of criminal liability.

Criminal act

The mental element of an offence is the state of mind a defendant must have had while performing the act or omission. When proving the required criminal act it must be shown that:

•
the defendant's conduct was voluntary, and
•
it occurred while they still had the requisite mental element

Other than in limited circumstances where an omission will suffice, the prosecution must show that the defendant acted voluntarily.

Generally, it must also be shown that the defendant had the required mental element or mens rea at the time of performing the act or omission.

Practice Note: Criminal act or omission deals with what is meant by ‘criminal act’, ‘omission’ or ‘actus reus’ in

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

TAKE A FREE TRIAL

Latest Corporate Crime News

MoJ publishes circular on Bail Act 1976 amendments under Sentencing Act 2026

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published Circular No. 2026/1 which outlines amendments to the Bail Act 1976 (BA 1976) by the Sentencing Act 2026 (SA 2026). These amendments, effective from 22 March 2026 and applicable to England and Wales, introduce three key changes aimed at reducing the prison remand population. The three main amendments to the BA 1976 include: (1) a change to the ‘no real prospect of custody’ test; (2) changes to the eligibility for electronic monitoring and (3) adding specific additional factors to the list of relevant factors that a court should consider when deciding whether to bail or remand a defendant.

Dana Astra IOOO v FCDO: Challenging UK sanctions designations

Corporate Crime analysis: The Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Dana Astra’s appeal against the High Court’s findings that Dana Astra, as a Belarus registered company without any business or assets in the UK, was not within the UK’s jurisdiction for the purposes of Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). While Dana Astra advanced interesting and novel arguments relating to extraterritorial jurisdiction within the context of sanctions, these were rejected decisively, affirming the European Court of Human Right’s (ECtHR’s) well established restrictive approach to jurisdiction. Written by Angelika Hellweger, legal director, and Ulrich Schmidt, associate, at Rahman Ravelli.

Ofcom fines 4chan for breaches of Online Safety Act 2023

Ofcom has imposed three fines totalling £520,000 on 4chan for breaches of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023). 4chan was fined £450,000 for failing to implement age assurance measures to prevent children from accessing pornographic content, £50,000 for not assessing the risk of illegal material appearing on its platform and £20,000 for not specifying in its terms of service how it protects users from illegal content. The company is now required to: (1) implement effective age assurance measures by 2 April 2026 or face daily penalties of £500; (2) carry out suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessments by the same date or incur daily penalties of £200 and (3) update its terms of service or face daily penalties of £100. The enforcement action forms part of Ofcom's broader implementation of online safety requirements, having issued 16 fines against six companies totalling nearly £4 million.

Insolvency Service publishes February 2026 enforcement outcomes management information

The Insolvency Service has updated its enforcement outcomes management information tables for February 2026. The data shows that there were 114 director disqualifications and eight bankruptcy and debt relief restrictions.

View Corporate Crime by content type :

News