18. (1) A body corporate shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection if an offence under this Act is committed by—

(a) a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate,

(b) a person purporting to act in that capacity,

(c) a shadow director within the meaning of the Companies Act 2014 of the body corporate, or

(d) an employee, agent or subsidiary of the body corporate,

with the intention of obtaining or retaining—

(i) business for the body corporate, or

(ii) an advantage in the conduct of business for the body corporate.

(2) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (1), it shall be a defence for a body corporate against which such proceedings are brought to prove that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.

(3) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or was attributable to any wilful neglect, of a person who was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, that person shall, as well as the body corporate, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(4) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (3) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.

(5) Subsection (1)—

(a) is without prejudice to the other circumstances, under the general law, whereby acts of a natural person are attributed to a body corporate resulting in criminal liability of that body corporate for those acts, and

(b) does not exclude criminal proceedings against natural persons who are involved as perpetrators, inciters or accessories in an offence under this Act.