Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1991

47 Confiscation orders

(1) Where a person is convicted in the Crown Court of a relevant offence the court shall, subject to the provisions of this section, make a confiscation order if it is satisfied that he has (whether before or after the coming into force of this Part of this Act) benefited from terrorist-related activities engaged in by him or another; and that order shall require him to pay an amount equal to what the court assesses to be the value of his proceeds of those activities.

(2) For the purposes of this Part of this Act—

(a) a person engages in terrorist-related activities if he engages in activities which consist of or involve the commission of one or more relevant offences;

(b) a person benefits from terrorist-related activities if he obtains money or other property as a direct or indirect result of those activities; and

(c) a person’s proceeds of terrorist-related activities are the money or other property obtained by him as mentioned above.

(3) A court shall not on convicting a defendant of a relevant offence make a confiscation order against him unless—

(a) he is in the same proceedings convicted of another relevant offence committed on a separate occasion (whether before or after the coming into force of this Part of this Act) since the beginning of the period of six years ending when those proceedings were instituted; or

(b) he is shown to have committed another relevant offence as mentioned in paragraph (a) above.

(4) In subsection (3)(a) above the reference to an offence of which a person is convicted includes a reference to an offence taken into consideration by the court in determining his sentence.

(5) A court shall not on convicting a defendant of a relevant offence make a confiscation order against him unless it is satisfied that, at some time since the commission of that offence, the realisable property held by him has exceeded £20,000 or such other amount as is for the time being prescribed for the purposes of this subsection by an order made by the Secretary of State.

(6) A court shall not make a confiscation order if the defendant satisfies the court that the circumstances in which the terrorist-related activities in question were engaged in would make it unfair or oppressive for such an order to be made.

(7) If when making a confiscation order the court is satisfied that the amount that might be realised in the case of the defendant at that time is less than the amount which the court assesses to be the value of his proceeds of terrorist-related activities, the order shall require him to pay the amount that might then be so realised.

(8) For the purpose of assessing the value of the defendant’s proceeds of terrorist-related activities in a case where a confiscation order has previously been made against him, the court shall leave out of account any of his proceeds of such activities that are shown to the court to have been taken into account in determining the amount to be paid under that order.