Punishes my refusal about accepting sanctimonious creature (4,8)
I believe the answer is:
whip scorpion
'creature' is the definition.
(whip scorpion is a kind of creature)
'punishes my refusal about accepting sanctimonious' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'my' could be 'cor' (both are expressions of surprise) and 'cor' is present in the answer.
'about' could be 'on' (as in a book 'on' a certain topic) and 'on' is located in the answer.
'sanctimonious' could be 'pi' (British abbreviation for pious) and 'pi' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'whips' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?