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Section 450: Punishment for destroying, mutilating, etc. company documents.

Companies Act 1985 · 1985 c. 6View on legislation.gov.uk

Part XIV: Investigation of Companies and Their Affairs; Requisition of Documents

An officer of a company. . . who—

destroys, mutilates or falsifies, or is privy to the destruction, mutilation or falsification of a document affecting, or relating to the company's property or affairs, or
makes, or is privy to the making of, a false entry in such a document,

is guilty of an offence, unless he proves that he had no intention to conceal the state of affairs of the company or to defeat the law.

Subsection (1) applies to an officer of an authorised insurance company which is not a body corporate as it applies to an officer of a company.

Such a person as above mentioned who fraudulently either parts with, alters or makes an omission in any such document or is privy to fraudulent parting with, fraudulent altering or fraudulent making of an omission in, any such document, is guilty of an offence.

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or a fine (or both);
on summary conviction—
in England and Wales, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both);
in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both).

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In this section "document" includes information recorded in any form.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.