Clause 78 - Gifts and their recipients
Proceeds of Crime Bill
5:45 pm
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
I listened to the hon. Member for Beaconsfield's point about the depreciation of shares—but what would happen if a criminal had made a substantial amount of money, and in trying to render it beyond confiscation, transferred it in Marconi shares to his daughter at the start of the year, when they were worth £12 each? The shares are now of no value. It would be unfair to say that his daughter should be liable for anything other than the new value of the shares, and we could not return to the defendant, who would effectively have hidden all the proceeds of his crime, or at least a large part of them.