Offenders may be liable to imprisonment

Challenge for you

• Why doesn’t the warning say: “…offenders are liable to imprisonment”?
• Is there unnecessary duplication between may and liable (bearing in mind that liable to a penalty means likely to be punished by law)
• If there is duplication, could this be intentional in the sense that KMB would like to play down the likelihood of imprisonment?

For your reference

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

 li • able
 BrE / ˈlaɪəbl /
 adjective
4 ~ to sth likely to be punished by law for sth
 Offenders are liable to fines of up to $500.
 Advertisers pretending to be private individuals will be liable to prosecution.

Laws of Hong Kong

1. Any person who contravenes section 3 or 4 commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $5,000.
2. Any person who fails to give his name and address or to produce proof of identity when required to do so under section 3(3) or 4(2) or who then gives a false or misleading name or address commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 3.

1. Any person, who, in respect of …makes or causes to be made any statement or furnishes or causes to be furnished any information which is false or misleading in a material particular or omits any material particular shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $500,000 and to imprisonment for 2 years, unless he satisfies the court or magistrate that he did not know and had no reason to believe the statement or information to be false or misleading or the omission to be material. (Amended 3 of 1984 s. 3; 30 of 1995 s. 13)
   1.  A person who fails to comply with-
      1. any provision of section 6AB; or
      2. any condition imposed on a validated production notification,

commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of $500,000 and to imprisonment for 2 years.