Civil Forfeiture

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 allows the Courts can make a Recovery Order forfeiting a person's property if satisfied that it derives from criminal conduct. A Recovery Order can be made notwithstanding the fact that a person has neither been convicted nor tried in relation to a criminal allegation.

As the law has developed, this legislation is now being used to remove from the innocent individual, who has been acquitted at trial of a criminal allegation, their assets. A recent example allowed a Recovery Order to be made against an individual who had not been convicted of any criminal offence but upon whom there was ‘intelligence’ of criminal activity.

In order to preserve an asset, and to investigate its derivation, the High Court has the power to make an "Property Freezing Order", which is an order preventing the disposal of assets and the use of bank accounts pending determination by the court.

These cases are rare, and yet we have experience dealing with these cases, including involvement in some of the largest brought to date.