Criminal Justice (Mutual Assistance) Act 2008

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PART 4

Freezing, Confiscation and Forfeiture of Property

Chapter 1

Interpretation

Interpretation(Part 4).

31.— (1) In this Part:

“appeal” includes any proceedings for the discharge or setting aside of a judgment and any application for a new trial or stay of execution;

“certificate” means the certificate—

(a) provided for in Article 9 of the Framework Decision, and

(b) the standard form of which is set out in the Annex to the Decision;

“confiscation co-operation order” has the meaning given to it by section 51 ;

“confiscation order” means a confiscation order within the meaning of the Act of 1994;

“defendant” means the person to whose property an external freezing order or external confiscation order relates;

“external confiscation order” means an order made by a court in a designated state for the purpose of—

(a) recovering property in the State which was received or obtained as a result of or in connection with conduct which would, if it occurred in the State, constitute an indictable offence,

(b) recovering the value of such property, or

(c) depriving a person of a pecuniary advantage so received or obtained;

“external forfeiture order” means an order for the forfeiture of property in the State which is made by a court in a designated state in or in connection with proceedings resulting from conduct which would, if it occurred in the State, constitute an indictable offence;

“external freezing order” means any measure—

(a) taken provisionally by a competent judicial authority of a designated state in criminal proceedings to prevent the destruction, transformation, moving, transfer, disposal or use of specified property in the State that could be subject to confiscation or be evidence in those proceedings, and

(b) made for the purpose of—

(i) subsequent confiscation of the property, or

(ii) protection of evidence;

“forfeiture co-operation order” has the meaning given to it by section 60 ;

“freezing co-operation order” has the meaning given to it by section 35 ;

“freezing order” means—

(a) an order under section 24 (as amended by section 105 (a) of this Act) of the Act of 1994,

(b) an order under section 14 or 15 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005 , or

(c) an order under section 32 ,

which relates to property in a designated state or in so far as it does so;

“issuing judicial authority” means a judicial authority in a designated state, as defined in the law of that state, which makes, validates or in any way confirms an external freezing order;

“issuing state” means the designated state in which an issuing judicial authority exercises jurisdiction;

“property” includes property of any description, corporeal or incorporeal, movable or immovable and wherever situated, which the competent judicial authority in the designated state considers—

(a) to be the proceeds of an offence,

(b) to be equivalent to either the full value or a part of the value of such proceeds, or

(c) to be the instrumentalities or objects of an offence,

and includes documents evidencing title to or an interest in the property;

“realisable property” means—

(a) in relation to a freezing co-operation order or confiscation co-operation order made in respect of specified property, the property specified in the order, and

(b) in any other case—

(i) any property held by the defendant, and

(ii) any property held by a person to whom the defendant has directly or indirectly made a gift,

but does not include property which is the subject of an order made by a court in other proceedings in the State unless or until that order is discharged.

(2) For the purposes of this Part, dealing with property held by any person includes (without prejudice to the generality of the expression)—

(a) where a debt is owed to that person, making a payment to any person in settlement or reduction of the debt, and

(b) removing the property from the State.

(3) References in this Part to a gift are to a gift which, if the external confiscation order were a confiscation order, would be a gift caught by the Act of 1994, and the provisions of that Act concerning a gift so caught apply and have effect in relation to a gift referred to in this Part.