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Reports that 16 of Britain’s most high-profile offenders still owe £126m in unpaid confiscation orders will not surprise anyone with an interest in financial crime. But tabloid calls for new measures to “beef up the authorities’ powers to seize ill-gotten gains” are only part of the solution. The Proceeds of Crime Act isn’t working and … Continued

Facing withering criticism from the Chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, a Senior Ministry of Justice official issued an ominous warning last week. Mark Sedwill, answering questions from Chair Margaret Hodge MP, said that Government Ministers were considering changing the law to allow courts to impose even longer prison sentences in the face of criticism … Continued

Margaret Hodge lived up to her fearsome reputation yesterday by savaging officials from the Home Office, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Head of the National Crime Agency during questioning before the Public Accounts Committee on the subject of Confiscation Orders. The Public Accounts Committee were considering the National Audit Office Report on Confiscation Orders published … Continued

Largely overlooked in the coverage of the National Audit Office’s (NAO) report on Confiscation Orders (17 December 2013) is the NAO’s findings on the impact of sending offenders who cannot pay their orders to prison. Largely overlooked in the coverage of the National Audit Office’s (NAO) report on Confiscation Orders (17 December 2013) is the NAO’s findings on the … Continued

Confiscation orders are in the headlines again. The National Audit Office report published on the 17 December 2013 makes depressing yet familiar reading.   The main headlines are that-   The Confiscation System does not offer value for money The Government has no strategy on tackling the enforcement gap Only 26p in every £100 of … Continued

At last there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for anyone facing confiscation proceedings. The good news is that in an important recent decision the Court of Appeal said that there has been a “seismic shift” in confiscation law recently. This follows the case of Waya, which became law in December … Continued

The Supreme Court’s (SC) judgment in Waya ([2013] 1 A.C. 294) has been rightly lauded as a landmark decision in the field of post-conviction confiscation. Last week I noted how the SC in Waya was careful to emphasise that their decision did not provide Judges with a discretion to tailor confiscation orders to suit the facts … Continued

The Supreme Court’s (SC) judgment in Waya ([2013] 1 A.C. 294) has been rightly lauded as a landmark decision in the field of post-conviction confiscation in the second of a series of articles considering the impact of the case. No Return to Judicial Discretion Many defence practitioners regularly express frustration at the “draconian” confiscation orders that often … Continued

The Supreme Court’s (SC) judgment in Waya ([2013] 1 A.C. 294) has been rightly lauded as a landmark decision in the field of post-conviction confiscation; in the first in a series of articles considering the impact of the case. The Supreme Court’s (SC) judgment in Waya ([2013] 1 A.C. 294) has been rightly lauded as a landmark … Continued