3 Assessing the proceeds of drug trafficking.S
(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)Without prejudice to section 4 of this Act the Court may, in making an assessment as regards a person under section 1(1) of this Act, make the following assumptions, except in so far as any of them may be shown to be incorrect in that person’s case—
(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 a date six years before his being indicted,
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 date mentioned in paragraph (a)(ii) above 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.
(3)Subsection (2) above does not apply if the only offence by virtue of which the assessment is being made is an offence under section [F142A or] 43 of this Act [F2or section 14 of the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990].
(4)The Court shall, in making an assessment as regards a person under section 1(1) of this Act, leave out of account any of his proceeds of drug trafficking that are shown to the court to have been taken into account in a case where a confiscation order (whether under this Act or under and within the meaning of—
[F3(a)section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994; or]
(b)any corresponding provision in Northern Ireland),
has previously been made against him.
(5)Where in making an assessment as regards a person under section 1(1) of this Act the Court at any stage is of the opinion that a difficult question of law or a question of fact of exceptional complexity is involved, it may of its own accord, or on the application of the prosecutor or of the person (or on their joint application), remit the case to the Court of Session for a decision as regards that question; and the Court of Session shall on deciding the question transmit the case to the High Court.
Textual Amendments
F1Words in s. 3(3) inserted (15.2.1994) by 1993 c. 36, ss. 17(2) (with s. 78(6)); S.I. 1994/71, art. 2, Sch..
F2Words in s. 3(3) inserted (01.07.1991) by Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990 (c. 5, SIF 39:1), s. 31(1), Sch. 4 para. 5(3); S.I.1991/1072 art 2(b), Sch., Pt. II.
F3S. 3(4)(a) substituted (3.2.1995) by 1994 c. 37, ss. 65, 69(2), Sch. 1 para. 12