Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Drug Trafficking OffencesAct 1986
1986 CHAPTER 32
An Act to make provision for the recovery of the proceeds of drug trafficking and other provision in connection with drug trafficking, to make provision about the supply of articles which may be used or adapted for use in the administration of controlled drugs or used to prepare a controlled drug for administration and to increase the number of assistant commissioners of police for the metropolis.
[8th July 1986]
B e it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Confiscation of proceeds of drug trafficking
1 Confiscation orders.
(1) Subject to subsection (7) below, where a person appears before the Crown Court to be sentenced in respect of one or more drug trafficking offences (and has not previously been sentenced or otherwise dealt with in respect of his conviction for the offence or, as the case may be, any of the offences concerned), the court shall act as follows.
(2) The court shall first determine whether he has benefited from drug trafficking.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, a person who has at any time (whether before or after the commencement of this section) received any payment or other reward in connection with drug trafficking carried on by him or another has benefited from drug trafficking.
(4) If the court determines that he has so benefited, the court shall, before sentencing or otherwise dealing with him in respect of the offence or, as the case may be, any of the offences concerned, determine in accordance with section 4 of this Act the amount to be recovered in his case by virtue of this section.
(5) The court shall then, in respect of the offence or offences concerned—
( a ) order him to pay that amount,
( b ) take account of the order before—
(i) imposing any fine on him, or
(ii) making any order involving any payment by him, or
( c ) subject to paragraph ( b ) above, leave the order out of account in determining the appropriate sentence or other manner of dealing with the defendant.
(6) No enactment restricting the power of a court dealing with an offender in a particular way from dealing with him also in any other way shall by reason only of the making of an order under this section restrict the Crown Court from dealing with an offender in any way the court considers appropriate in respect of a drug trafficking offence.
(7) Subsection (1) above does not apply in relation to any offence for which a person appears before the Crown Court to be sentenced if—
( a ) he has been committed to the Crown Court for sentence in respect of that offence under section 37(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (committal to Crown Court with a view to sentence of youth custody), or
( b ) the powers of the court (apart from this section) to deal with him in respect of that offence are limited to dealing with him in any way in which a magistrates' court might have dealt with him in respect of the offence.
(8) In this Act—
( a ) an order under this section is referred to as a ‘confiscation order’, and
( b ) a person against whom proceedings have been instituted for a drug trafficking offence is referred to (whether or not he has been convicted) as ‘the defendant’.
2 Assessing the proceeds of drug trafficking.
(1) For the purposes of this Act—
( a ) any payments or other rewards received by a person at any time (whether before or after the commencement of section 1 of this Act) in connection with drug trafficking carried on by him or another are his proceeds of drug trafficking, and
( b ) the value of his proceeds of drug trafficking is the aggregate of the values of the payments or other rewards.
(2) The Court may, for the purpose of determining whether the defendant has benefited from drug trafficking and, if he has, of assessing the value of his proceeds of drug trafficking, make the following assumptions, except to the extent that any of the assumptions are shown to be incorrect in the defendant's case.
(3) Those assumptions are—
( a ) that any property appearing to the court—
(i) to have been held by him at any time since his conviction, or
(ii) to have been transferred to him at any time since the beginning of the period of six years ending when the proceedings were instituted against him,
was received by him, at the earliest time at which he appears to the court to have held it, as a payment or reward in connection with drug trafficking carried on by him,
( b ) that any expenditure of his since the beginning of that period was met out of payments received by him in connection with drug trafficking carried on by him, and
( c ) that, for the purpose of valuing any property received or assumed to have been received by him at any time as such a reward, he received the property free of any other interests in it.
(4) Subsection (2) above does not apply if the only drug trafficking offence in respect of which the defendant appears before the court to be sentenced is an offence under section 24 of this Act.
(5) For the purpose of assessing the value of the defendant's proceeds of drug trafficking in a case where a confiscation order has previously been made against him, the court shall leave out of account any of his proceeds of drug trafficking that are shown to the court to have been taken into account in determining the amount to be recovered under that order.
3 Statements relating to drug trafficking.
(1) Where—
( a ) there is tendered to the Crown Court by the prosecutor a statement as to any matters relevant to the determinaion whether the defendant has benefited from drug trafficking or to the assessment of the value of his proceeds of drug trafficking, and
( b ) the defendant accepts to any extent any allegation in the statement,
the court may, for the purposes of that determination and assessment, treat his acceptance as conclusive of the matters to which it relates.
(2) Where—
( a ) a statement is tendered under subsection (1)( a ) above, and
( b ) the court is satisfied that a copy of that statement has been served on the defendant,
the court may require the defendant to indicate to what extent he accepts each allegation in the statement and, so far as he does not accept any such allegation, to indicate any matters he proposes to rely on.
(3) If the defendant fails in any respect to comply with a requirement under subsection (2) above he may be treated for the purposes of this section as accepting every allegation in the statement apart from—
( a ) any allegation in respect of which he has complied with the requirement, and
( b ) any allegation that he has benefited from drug trafficking or that any payment or other reward was received by him in connection with drug trafficking carried on by him or another.
(4) Where—
( a ) there is tendered to the Crown Court by the defendant a statement as to any matters relevant to determining the amount that might be realised at the time the confiscation order is made, and
( b ) the prosecutor accepts to any extent any allegation in the statement,
the court may, for the purposes of that determination, treat the acceptance by the prosecutor as conclusive of the matters to which it relates.
(5) An allegation may be accepted or a matter indicated for the purposes of this section either—
( a ) orally before the court, or
( b ) in writing in accordance with Crown Court Rules.
(6) No acceptance by the defendant under this section that any payment or other reward was received by him in connection with drug trafficking carried on by him or another shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings for an offence.
4 Amount to be recovered under confiscation order.
(1) Subject to subsection (3) below, the amount to be recovered in the defendant's case under the confiscation order shall be the amount the Crown Court assesses to be the value of the defendant's proceeds of drug trafficking.
(2) If the court is satisfied as to any matter relevant for determining the amount that might be realised at the time the confiscation order is made (whether by an acceptance under section 3 of this Act or otherwise), the court may issue a certificate giving the court's opinion as to the matters concerned and shall do so if satisfied as mentioned in subsection (3) below.
(3) If the court is satisfied that the amount that might be realised at the time the confiscation order is made is less than the amount the court assesses to be the value of his proceeds of drug trafficking, the amount to be recovered in the defendant's case under the confiscation order shall be the amount appearing to the court to be the amount that might be so realised.
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