Proceeds of Crime Bill
8:55 am
Mr Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 25, in page 6, line 1, after `property', insert
`transferred to the defendant after the relevant day and'.
The amendment is relatively simple, and I look forward to the Minister responding to it positively. It is an attempt to tighten the wording under subsection (3) to ensure that it has no unintended effect and specifies the period to which the clause relates. As drafted, the Bill has the capacity to confiscate property that has no feasible connections with a criminal lifestyle, notwithstanding the fact that the burden of proof is on the defendant to displace the assumption when it could be applied to property that has been in his family for generations.
The phrase ``the relevant day'' appears throughout the clause, including in subsections (2) and (4), but not in subsection (3). Why is it missing from that subsection? That might be a drafting error. Subsection (3) is unnecessarily wide and could have an unintended effect. Does the Minister share my view?