PROCEEDS OF CRIME ACT 2002 - Confiscation Proceedings and Criminal Lifestyle

Aug. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 replaced the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988 in so far as they related to Proceeds of Crime. The impact of the 2002 Act is often catastrophic for a number of reasons.

The Act introducres the concept of CRIMINAL LIFESTYLE and both PARTICULAR CRIMINAL CONDUCT and GENERAL CRIMINAL CONDUCT. These are matters with which it is better to be familiar. Often a relatively small offence can now lead to serious ongoing consequences. The effect is therefore that once you have been convicted and are serving time, your problems have often only just begun. In the wings waites the Proceeds of Crime act with the power vested in the Court to order paymewnt of a sum of money to reflect the benefit and in default of payment, you must serve a (further) period in custody. The intention is to ensure that no one shall benefit financially from criminal conduct.

If you are found to have a CRIMINAL LIFESTYLE trhen a particular set of problems flow from this. The Court is entitled to go back as long as it wants in establishing that you have benefited from your historical criminal lifestyle. In addition, there are certain STATUTORY ASSUMPTIONS made by the Court so that in many important respects, the onus in effect shifts to you to prove otherwise.

Section 75 of the 2002 Act addresses the issue of CRIMINAL LIFESTYLE. The Section sets out reasonably clearly whether you are held to have a criminal lifestyle. If you are, then your General (as against Particular) criminal conduct) must be taken into account in calculating your financial benefit from crime.

A  Defendant has a  CRIMINAL LIFESTYLE if he has committed an offence set out in Schedule 2 of the Act. Similarly, the same applies if your conduuct forms part of a course of criminal activity or is an offence committed over a period of att least six months and you have benefited from the conduct which constitutes the offence.

Schedule 2 refers more specifically to drug trafficking; money laundering; directing terrorism; people trafficking; arms trafficking; counterfeiting; intelllectual property offences; pimping and brithel keeping; blackmail.

If you therefore have been founbd guilty of any of these offences - including aiding and abetting; attempting; conspiring and inciting the same, then you wil automatically be held to have a CRIMINAL LIFESTYLE.

In addition, the same applies if you are held to have been found guilty of an offence which "constitutes conduct  forming part of a COURSE OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT. This is proveable if you have been convicted of three or more offences in the current proceedings each of which constitutes conduct from which he has benefited or such an offence on at least two separate noccasions in the six years before the current proceedings were commenced.

In respect of a "course of criminal conduct" the "relevant benefit" must not be less than five thousand pounds.

For more up to date information:  go to  www.confiscationproceedings.co.uk

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www.confiscationproceedings.co.uk is a website determined to assist those who are affected in any way by the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime act 2002