Proceeds of crime
Section 15: Proceeds of Crime Act 2002: lifestyle offences
70.Section 15 amends Schedule 4 to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (“2002 Act”) to categorise all trafficking and exploitation offences as lifestyle offences for the purposes of that Act. A conviction of a lifestyle offence triggers assumptions under the 2002 Act that the accused has a criminal lifestyle and that the accused’s property is recoverable as criminal proceeds.
71.Section 11(a) amends Schedule 4 to the 2002 Act, by substituting paragraph 4 thereof with a list of all offences related to trafficking and thus categorising all such offences as lifestyle offences for the purposes of the 2002 Act. Section 11(b) amends the same Schedule, by inserting a new paragraph 4A to provide that an offence under section 4 of the Act also constitutes a lifestyle offence.