Enforcement as fines etc
Section 185: Enforcement as fines etc
250.Section 185 explains how confiscation orders are to be enforced. As at present, the order will be treated as a Crown Court fine and enforced, as a Crown Court fine. Essentially the burden of enforcing such orders falls on the main prosecuting authority in Northern Ireland the Office of the Director for Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland (DPP). Unlike in England and Wales, Crown Court fines in Northern Ireland are not enforced by or through the magistrates’ court. This results in some differences between the two jurisdictions in the powers of enforcement available.
251.Accordingly, this section provides for confiscation orders to be enforced essentially in the same way as fines are enforced in Northern Ireland by referring to the relevant legislation, the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945. However, as in England and Wales one of the main features of this regime is that the Crown Court, where it makes a confiscation order, is required to set a term of imprisonment in default of payment. The maximum default term that may be imposed is determined by the size of the confiscation order. There is no substantial difference in the maximum default term applicable to a particular confiscation order between the various United Kingdom jurisdictions.
Section 186: Director’s application for enforcement
252.As noted above, all Crown Court confiscation orders are enforced through the Crown Court in Northern Ireland. The relevant legislative provisions are contained at section 35 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945. They include detailed provision on imprisonment in default of payment. This section provides for the Director to apply to the Crown court to trigger the default term on the same grounds as apply when the DPP is enforcing a confiscation order.
Section 187: Provisions about imprisonment or detention
253.Section 187 contains general provision on imprisonment in default of a confiscation order, applicable when the default term is imposed by the Crown Court in response to an application either by the prosecutor or the Director. The provision reflects existing legislation in Northern Ireland. As in England and Wales, it provides that a term of imprisonment in default of a confiscation order must be served consecutively to the substantive term imposed for the offence(s), and that the service of a default term does not prevent the confiscation order from being enforced subsequently by other means.
Section 188: Reconsideration etc: variation of prison term
254.The Crown Court fixes the period of imprisonment in default by reference to the amount of the confiscation order. Section 188 provides for Northern Ireland in the same way that section 39 does for England and Wales, for the period of imprisonment in default to be varied where the court varies the amount of a confiscation order under certain provisions of the Act.
255.The overall purpose of the provision is to clarify what happens when the variation of a confiscation order changes the maximum period of imprisonment in default applicable to the order.
