Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
Civil Proceedings
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) was introduced to ensure that serious criminals could not benefit from the crimes that they had
committed. This is a very laudable objective but the legislation can be Draconian for minor criminals and can lead to very unjust outcomes.
Many criminal lawyers seem reluctant to challenge the system and Cobham Murphy's Forensic Investigation Team has seen many examples where
Confiscations have been sought in huge sums of money when in truth there were no proceeds of the crime or a very minor amount of money is involved.
If someone has been found guilty of a criminal offence they have to prove the source of money used to;
a.Acquire any assets or savings held 6 years before the offence
b.Acquire any assets or savings or used to spend in the 6 years prior to the offence
c.Acquire any assets or savings or used to spend since the offence
If they cannot prove all of these things then the Crown is entitled to assume that they are from the proceeds of crime and confiscate an amount equal to them.
Cobham Murphy began defending individuals who were subject to excessive confiscation applications as soon as the new legislation started to bite and
now has a considerable amount of experience counteracting the excessive demands produced by overzealous police financial investigators who it is reported
receive part of what they confiscate personally as a bonus.
Anyone subject to a POCA Application should ensure that their solicitor engages an experienced firm like Cobham Murphy to produce a Forensic Report in
support of their case.
Recently we have completed Reports in case where;
a.The police investigator sought almost £500,000 and our Report reduced that to £13,000
b.The police investigator declared benefits of criminal activity of more than £6,000,000 and we concluded that there had been no
proceeds of crime whatsoever.
In addition to success defending Applications for Confiscation we have also acted in main stream criminal cases where the evidence against the defendant
was dubious and secured outcomes for people who were at risk of prison but who had committed no offence. A recent example is a shop employee accused
of stealing £70,000 from the employer. Following presentation of our Report on the evidence the individual was not guilty.
Anyone who is subject to criminal charges in relation to any offence involving money or monetary value should ensure that their solicitor engage the
services of a Forensic Expert such as Cobham Murphy.