Confiscation Order Resolved For Happy Client
Frank came to us after he thought the courts had finished with him. He had been charged with and convicted of theft from his employer and criminal damage.
A Confiscation Order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 had been issued against him.
Frank was content with repaying £11,560, the sum he had stolen. He had pleaded Guilty to the offence and readily accepted that he had done wrong and his employer needed compensating for the damages he had caused to them.
However, Frank didn’t realise that a POCA investigation looks back 6 years into his financial history before the date of the offence, and if any amounts of money cannot be explained then they will expect this to be used to re-pay the amount on the confiscation order. In Frank’s case – £11,560.
Prior to this offence Frank had transferred £30,000 into his brother’s account as they were planning on investing in a house together. However, before this investment could be started the courts froze his brother’s bank accounts as they believed that this may have been an attempt to conceal funds to avoid paying the confiscation order.
Frank came to us with one aim. He needed his brother to have access to his own accounts again. As you can imagine it was causing a massive inconvenience to his daily life not having access to any of his bank accounts, and he had done nothing wrong.
Frank met with our POCA specialist – Steve Williams – who advised on what the best course of action would be for his brother to gain access to his accounts as soon as possible.
We immediately started working on Frank’s case, liaising with both the prosecution and court. A hearing date was fixed for a week later to deal with the POCA matter. Because we had been liaising with the prosecution we managed to get an agreement in place before this court hearing, meaning that our client did not need to attend the court hearing.
This agreement was agreed at the court hearing and the formal confiscation order was made. Following this we chased the prosecution up regularly to speed up the time it took them to take the agreed amount of compensation out of the specified bank account.
Frank’s brother now has access to all of his accounts again, and Frank is working on re-building his life putting this matter firmly behind him.
After the matter had been finalised Frank had this to say;
“Thank you for keeping me up to date with the progress of the case throughout. I will be sure to recommend your services to others should they find themselves needing legal assistance.”
If you need specialist help for any matter relating to a Confiscation Order, call our expert team now on 01623 397200.
