Companies Act 2014 section 876

Offence of providing false information

Section 876 creates a criminal offence where a person knowingly or recklessly provides false information in purported compliance with the Companies Act, and provides for enhanced penalties where that false information causes serious financial harm.

• It is a category 2 offence to knowingly or recklessly submit any return, report, certificate, balance sheet, statement or other document that is false in a material particular when purporting to comply with the Act
• It is also a category 2 offence to knowingly or recklessly provide false information to an electronic filing agent where that information is subsequently transmitted in a return to the Registrar on the person's behalf
• Where a conviction on indictment involves conduct that substantially contributed to a company's inability to pay its debts, impeded an orderly winding up, or facilitated the defrauding of creditors, the maximum penalties are increased to those applicable to a category 1 offence
• The enhanced penalties under category 1 apply regardless of the fact that the underlying offence is classified as category 2, reflecting the seriousness of the financial harm caused