Increasingly courts are hearing cases concerning confiscation of assets of a defendant following his conviction, in which the defendant is said to have a ‘criminal lifestyle’.
The statute law in the UK relating to the confiscation of assets of a person convicted of one or more criminal offences is now contained in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (PoCA 2002) which applies where the relevant offence, or offences, was committed after 23 March 2003.
References in this article are to the law in England and Wales found in part 2 of PoCA 2002. Similar provisions apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland under parts 3 and 4 of the same Act.
PoCA 2002 consolidated and extended earlier legislation relating to confiscation. The earlier legislation continues to apply where one or more of the relevant offences were committed, or commenced, before 24 March 2003. Detailed transitional provisions are to be found in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Commencement No. 5, Transitional Provisions, Savings
