cards Decks.txt

• drug trafficking
• s327 or s328 money laundering not s329
• people trafficking
• arms trafficking
• counterfeiting
• intellectual property
• pimps / brothel
• blackmail

includes  - attempt, conspiracy, incitement, aiding, abetting, counselling.

course of criminal activity test, either

current proceedings  - 4 or more offences from which benefited - total is not less than £5000

or

convicted current proceedings offence which have benefited plus other convictions benefited, on at least two separate occasions, within 6 years current proceedings started.  Total benefit must be £5000 or more

convicted offence committed over period of time of at least 6 months and benefited not less than £5000

if court decides criminal lifestyle they must make 4 assumptions

Any property transferred to A at any time, after relevant day,  was a result of criminal conduct, & was obtained the earliest day they appear to held it.

Relevant day - first day 6 years before proceedings (earliest).

property held after date of latest conviction was obtained as a result of criminal conduct

any expenditure after relevant day met from property obtained as a result of general criminal conduct

any property obtained was obtained free of other interests (e.g. charge, HP)

if shown to be incorrect 

serious risk of injustice if made

s10 (7)  state reason for not making any assumption

defendants benefit from conduct concerned (general criminal conduct minus pre-existing order)

The amount of the accused's benefit from either his general criminal conduct or his particular criminal conduct

• unless the amount available less than the benefit, - the order must be made in that
• lesser amount.

The available amount is the value of all the accused's property minus certain prior obligations of the accused such as earlier fines, plus the value of all tainted gifts made by him.

fine or court order prior to confiscation order has priority

• 1. made after time of offence 
• 2. if two or more offences after earliest offence
• 3. if continuing offence made after date of first occasion offence was committed

1. any time after six years before proceedings commenced. 

2. made at any time was obtained as a result of, or in connection with their general criminal conduct

3. whole / in part / directly / indirectly property obtained as a result of or in connection with their general criminal conduct

prosecutor 

FI

Crown court, no limits

Yes if real risk of dissipation

all realisable property, includes

• cash
• any realisable property transferred after order made
• any unknown property
• criminal lifestyle -restrain from dealing with any or all of property, or particular benefit
• applies to property any where in world

• constable 
• HMRC officer
• accredited FI 

to prevent removal from England and Wales - any realisable property

• Free property
• defendant holds or given to another
• not cash seized under s294/295
• inc business as sole proprietor or their share

free = not subject to forfeiture, deprivation, recovery order etc

• separate entity
• only if Judge lifts corporate veil 
• evidence partly / wholly used for criminal purpose 
• decision can be reversed 
• lack of corporate records assists

• transactions financial position 
• balance sheet - assets  / liabilities
• profit  / loss 
• accounting records - in's and out's
• PLC £12,500 share capital 
• limited - £2

S48 POCA application to court to appoint the receiver -- therefore effectively officer of the court although initially instructed by the applicant.

• take possession
• manage or deal with
• start, carry on, or defend legal proceedings
• realise as much property  necessary to meet their own renumeration and expenses
• enter premises to search for / inspect (court confer)
• make obtain copy, photo or other record (court confer)
• removed anything authorised to take

reasonable cause to BELIEVE benefited from their criminal conduct.

and after

criminal investigation has been started

proceedings started but not concluded or

application from prosecutor reconsideration where no order made

restraint order can be made when;

• application to reconsider benefit or
• application to reconsider available amount

reasonable cause to believe court will recalculate

authorised under s68 (3) by senior officer -

• police - supt
• HMRC - officer designated by commissioners
• accredited FI designated secretary of state s453

if court believes undue delay in proceedings

or

prosecutor does not intend to proceed prosecution or confiscation.

protection of property

• 1) reasonable living expenses
• 2) reasonable legal expenses
• 3) enable person to carry on trade, business, profession or job

1 - £250 / week guidelines

person who applied for the order

anyone affected by the order

in writing and accompanied by witness statement

any person affected can appeal to the court of appeal and further route to House of Lords

Appeal to the Court of Appeal

- can confirm decision of lower court

- make the restraint order applied for

- make any other order it deems appropriate

court may order for serious default in relation to restraint if all of following

1) no conviction / quashed / pardoned

2) serious default by individual was reason stopping proceedings

3) person holding realisable property suffers loss as a result of restraint

FI serves restraint on defendant asap after court grants it

copy or original plus copy of investigators statement

third parties also served - eg banks

certificate of services returned to court within 7 days

where can be served electronically general rule is that it will be.

• a) service by handing over
• b) handing to senior person in corporation
• c) handing to rep when legally represented
• d) prosecution by handing to or rep
• e) court officer with authority
• f) court officer with auth at criminal appeal court

Person U18 - parent, guardian or appropriate adult

address where reasonably believed person will receive it

corporation - principal office, if not any address carries out its business

legal representatives office

prosecutor / court officer / appeal - their office - DX unless said no

if supplied electronic address, themselves or representative - and not refused this method

no need for paper copy

• left at address - next business day
• first class post - second business day
• DX - second business day after left

conviction of an offence from which they have benefited before the Crown Court

or is convicted mags and is committed to the Crown Court for sentence.

or is convicted mags and committed to Crown Court for confiscation order

and

The court is asked to proceed by the prosecutor

or the court believes it is appropriate to do so.

The duty of the Crown Court to proceed with confiscation is mandatory unless the court believes that a victim has instituted, or intends to institute, civil proceedings against the defendant then - the duty becomes a power.

• Stage 1
• A) Court must first decide whether the defendant has a criminal lifestyle.

• Stage 2
• B) If criminal lifestyle -  the court must then
• decide whether the defendant has benefited from their general criminal conduct.

• Stage 2
• C) if they have benefited, the value of that benefit using the four assumptions

• Stage 2
• d) No criminal lifestyle - have they have benefited from their particular criminal conduct?

Stage 2 - what is recoverable amount?

• make an order requiring the defendant to pay that amount
• Take account of that order before  
• imposeing a fine on the defendant
• making an order involving payment other than compensation 
• forfeiture order s27 MDA 1971
• order  s143 of the Powers of Criminal Court Sentencing Act 2000
• forfeiture  Terrorism Act 2000

confiscation orders have absolute priority over any other financial penalty except for compensation.

Once a confiscation order has been made, the court must state a sentence in default, should the defendant fail to pay.

7 days

• confiscation upon conviction and prior
• to sentence but can be postponed

• on application by the defendant
• on application by the prosecutor
• or if the court believes it is appropriate

If either the prosecutor or defence require time to present their case in relation to confiscation proceedings, the court may set out a timetable specifying the dates when prosecutor’s statements and defence responses are to be served + setting date for the confiscation hearing.

may not be postponed for more than two years from the date of conviction unless there are exceptional circumstances 

• defendant appeals against conviction, the postponement must not exceed three months from the date the appeal is finalised (if outside the two-year
• period) unless exceptional circumstances

If proceedings are postponed, the court may sentence the defendant but must not impose any fine or other financial order on them.

• A confiscation order cannot be quashed just because there has been some defect in
• the postponement procedure

• The available amount is the value of all the defendant's property, minus
• certain prior obligations of the defendant's such as earlier fines, plus the value of all
• tainted gifts made by the defendant.

• benefit from either
• his general criminal conduct
• or
• his particular criminal conduct

• unless the amount available for confiscation is considered by the court and found to
• be less than the benefit in question, in which case the order must be made in that
• lesser amount.

the amount actually ordered to be confiscated as the recoverable amount

• where the court has decided that the defendant
• has a criminal lifestyle, any gift made by the defendant to any person in the period
• beginning six years before the commencement of proceedings is caught, together with
• any gift made at any time out of the proceeds of crime. This is relevant both at the
• confiscation hearing and for the purposes of enforcement. If the court decides that the
• defendant does not have a criminal lifestyle, only gifts made since the beginning of
• the earliest of the offences committed are caught

plus transactions at less than value

• a defendant absconds when has been convicted in the Crown Court or committed to the Crown Court for sentence or confiscation
• OR
• Proceedings for an offence have been started against the defendant and not concluded (un-convicted) and once 2 years have elapsed from the day that the court
• believes the defendant absconded.

• Crown Court must, if requested by the prosecutor, proceed to confiscation. 
• However in these circumstances the confiscation will be limited to the defendant’s
• particular criminal conduct, without the use of any assumptions

• The first three are:
• 1 -the court did not proceed to confiscation and no confiscation
• 2 -order was made (POCA section 19);the court proceeded with confiscation, but found no benefit from either general or particular criminal conduct and so no confiscation order was made (POCA section 20)
• 3 - confiscation order was made, but the prosecutor believes the benefit is greater than that calculated at the time (POCA section 21).

• provided that there is new evidence that was not available at the time and the application is within six years of conviction, the court can proceed with confiscation,  make a confiscation order where none was made, or increase the benefit and make a confiscation order, or increase the benefit and adjust the confiscation order
• accordingly.

The court cannot apply the assumptions in relation to any property obtained after the date of conviction.

• 4 confiscation order was made, but the prosecutor believes that the available  amount is greater than that calculated at the time (POCA section 22).This may happen where comes into possession of assets after the confiscation process is complete but where there was a shortfall between the
• benefit and the available amounts.

the new assets may become liable to confiscation and the court may proceed as above.

• Application may be made at any time after conviction (i.e. the ‘within six years of
• conviction’ restriction does not apply)

The relevant authority is defined under section 357 (7)(a) as the prosecutor.

prosecutor may be:

• A member of SOCA’s staff
• The Director of Public Prosecutions
• The Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern  Ireland
• The Director of the Serious Fraud Office
• The Director of the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions

Any person specified by an order of the Secretary of State.

• Section 378(1) of POCA 2002, as amended, gives the definition of an appropriate officer
• as:
• member of SOCA’s staff
• accredited financial investigator
• constable
• customs officer (HMRC).

• Reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person specified has benefited from criminal conduct
• and
• Reasonable grounds for believing that the information  requested is likely to be of substantial value (whether or not by itself)
• to the investigation
• and
• Reasonable grounds for believing that it is in the public interest for the required information to be provided. 

authorises the appropriate officer to give to any person considered to have or hold relevant information about a confiscation investigation, written notice requiring him/her to

• Answer questions at a specified time
• and place

• Provide information at a time and in a
• manner specified in the notice

• Produce documents at a time and in a
• manner specified in the notice.

• The only exceptions to the material provided are where there is any privileged material
• subject to the terms of the order.

The order, can be in force for the length of the investigation.

• Two offences are created in respect of this order under section 359:
• Failure to comply with the order (summary offence)
•  Providing false or misleading statements in response to an order (summary or indictable offence).
• offences on summary conviction six months and/or a fine. On indictment max two years imprisonment and/or a fine

Other methods of obtaining the required information must be considered or tried prior to applying for a disclosure order.

The bulk of part 5 is however concerned with S.240 (1)(a) 

SOCA will consider referrals from any law enforcement agency of cases The referral forms are available on FISS. 

• Prosecution is not viable 
• Prosecution has failed
• Confiscation  is not viable
• Confiscation  has failed

• There is no lower limit in monetary terms but proceedings in the High Court can be very costly and time consuming, it follows
• that small value cases are unlikely to be pursued.

Unlike the criminal confiscation processes the civil provisions of part 5 allow for investigations to go back for 12 years, in addition there are taxation powers which can go back for 20 years

• Fraud
• Deception
• POCA lifesytle
• Common law
• Conspiracy to defraud
• Bribery
• Tax etc
• Bribery  / corruption
• Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
• Terrorism Act 2000
• Theft Act1968

14 days

7 days

28 days

45 days

3 months

6 months

12 months

18 months

2 years

3 years

5 years

10 years

A confiscation order is payable as soon as the order is made unless the defendant can show the court that they need time to pay

the court may extend the time to pay for up to six months from the date the order is made.If the court believes there are exceptional circumstances then it may extend to maximum 12 months.  The defendant may apply to the court at any time after the confiscation order is made, but not after 12 month period has elapsed.  Time to pay should not be granted unless the prosecutor has been given the opportunity to make representations

24 March 2003

gross received

Criminal conduct is defined as:

constitutes an offence in any part of the UK or, if the conduct occurred elsewhere, would constitute an offence in any part of the UK if it occurred there

• for money laundering
• overseas activity has to be offence in both countries

• confiscation
• overseas activity has to be offence in UK