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The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 fundamentally changed how the UK pursues criminal wealth. Those who profit from wrongdoing should be stripped of their gains. Those who help them should face serious consequences.
In practice, POCA has created an arsenal of powers that can freeze your bank accounts, seize your property, and demand you hand over assets even before any court has convicted you of anything. Tower Bridge Legal advises and represents clients facing all forms of POCA proceedings, helping protect assets and challenging disproportionate enforcement.
How POCA Works
The Act operates on several fronts simultaneously, by creating criminal offences covering money laundering in its various forms. It provides for confiscation orders after conviction, forcing defendants to surrender the benefit obtained from their crimes. It establishes civil recovery routes that allow authorities to seize assets without ever securing a criminal conviction. And it gives investigators formidable powers to freeze assets, compel disclosure, and restrain property while enquiries continue.
What makes POCA particularly alarming for those on the receiving end is that many of its provisions operate on the balance of probabilities rather than the criminal standard of proof. Suspicion can be enough to freeze your accounts. Civil recovery can succeed even where criminal proceedings failed or were never brought. Confiscation orders can exceed what you actually possess, creating debts that haunt you for decades.
Confiscation Orders
Once you have been convicted of an offence generating financial benefit, confiscation follows. The court calculates the benefit you obtained from your criminal conduct and the amount currently available to satisfy an order. The order is set at whichever figure is lower, though prosecutors can return later if your circumstances improve and seek an upward adjustment.
Calculating benefit is where things become fiercely contested. In lifestyle cases, where the court deems you to have led a criminal lifestyle based on your offending pattern, statutory assumptions kick in. Every piece of property you held in the past six years is presumed to be criminal proceeds.
Available amount calculations bring their own complexities, particularly where you have business interests, jointly held property, or assets abroad. We work with forensic accountants to prepare accurate schedules, challenge inflated prosecution valuations, and ensure only genuinely realisable assets count against you.
Restraint Orders
A restraint order stops you dealing with any realisable property that could potentially satisfy a future confiscation order. Applications are typically made without notice, so your first indication may be discovering you cannot access your own assets. Once imposed, restraint can last for years while criminal proceedings grind forward.
Living under restraint is gruelling. Savings become inaccessible and selling property or making normal financial arrangements requires court permission or prosecutor consent. We apply to vary restraint orders, securing release of funds for essential living costs and legal fees. We also challenge orders where the statutory requirements have not been properly satisfied or where the breadth of restraint is simply unjustifiable.
Account Freezing and Forfeiture
Account freezing orders let investigators immobilise bank funds based purely on reasonable suspicion that the money is recoverable property or intended for unlawful use. No criminal charge is required. Accounts can remain frozen for up to two years while authorities investigate. If they conclude the funds are indeed tainted, forfeiture proceedings follow. These are civil matters decided on the balance of probabilities. Your money can be taken without any criminal conviction.
We represent clients contesting forfeiture, challenging the basis for the authorities’ suspicions and presenting evidence demonstrating the legitimate origins of frozen funds. These cases require prompt action as delays will only strengthen the prosecution.
Unexplained Wealth Orders
Unexplained wealth orders are a newer weapon in the POCA armoury. They demand that you explain how you acquired property worth more than £50,000, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect your known lawful income could not account for it. Targets must be either politically exposed persons or suspected of involvement in serious crime.
Fail to respond adequately and the property is presumed recoverable, opening the door to civil recovery. This effectively flips the burden of proof, requiring you to demonstrate legitimate sources rather than requiring authorities to prove criminality. We advise clients served with unexplained wealth orders and represent them through any ensuing proceedings.
Money Laundering Offences
POCA creates three principal money laundering offences. Section 327 covers concealing, disguising, converting, transferring, or removing criminal property from the jurisdiction. Section 328 addresses entering into arrangements facilitating the handling of criminal property by others. Section 329 prohibits acquiring, using, or possessing criminal property. Maximum sentences run to 14 years for the first two offences and five years for the third.
These offences cast an extraordinarily wide net. Criminal property means anything constituting or representing benefit from criminal conduct where you know or suspect as much. You need not know details of the underlying criminality. Mere suspicion is enough. Professionals in the regulated sector face additional reporting obligations, and failure to report suspicious activity is itself a criminal offence. We advise professionals on navigating these obligations and defend those accused of laundering or failing to report.
Default and Enforcement
Confiscation orders must be paid within a set period, usually three to six months. Failure to pay triggers default imprisonment, which could be anything from a few weeks for small sums to 14 years for amounts exceeding £10 million. Serving the default term does not extinguish the debt. You still owe the money, and authorities can pursue it for the rest of your life, seizing any assets you later acquire.
We advise on managing confiscation obligations, including applications to extend payment time, applications to vary orders where circumstances have changed, and practical strategies for satisfying what is owed. We also represent clients facing enforcement action, challenging miscalculations and disproportionate measures.
Fighting Back
POCA gives authorities sweeping powers, but limits exist. Procedural requirements must be followed and legal tests must be met. Human rights considerations constrain enforcement. We scrutinise every aspect of POCA proceedings, searching for grounds to challenge applications, reduce confiscation figures, or resist forfeiture altogether.
If you face any form of POCA proceedings, whether confiscation, civil recovery, account freezing, or unexplained wealth orders, contact Tower Bridge Legal for specialist advice. The financial stakes can rival the threat of imprisonment. You need solicitors who know this area inside out and we do.
