Commentary on Sections Section 1 – Offence of assaulting etc. retail worker
7.Section 1(1) makes it an offence for a person to assault, threaten or abuse another person who is a retail worker (as defined in section 4), and who is engaged, at the time of the offence, in retail work (as defined in section 5(2)).
8.Section 1(2) provides that the offence is only committed if the person who carried out the assault, threat or abuse knew, or ought to have known, that the person was a retail worker and was engaged, at the time, in retail work. Otherwise, no offence under subsection (1) is committed (although the behaviour may, of course, still constitute an offence – such as the common-law offence of assault).
9.Section 1(3) specifies the maximum penalties for committing the offence created by section 1(1) – namely, imprisonment for up to 12 months or a fine of the “prescribed sum” (defined in subsection (5)), or both. The “prescribed sum” is currently £10,000 (by virtue of section 225(8) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995)(1). The section 1(1) offence can only be prosecuted summarily (without a jury, in the Justice of the Peace or sheriff court).
10.Section 1(4) allows evidence from a single source to be sufficient to establish that a person is a retail worker or is engaged, at the time, in retail work, for the purposes of subsection (1). This removes the normal requirement for all evidence in criminal matters to be corroborated. (Other essential elements of the offence require corroboration in the normal way.)