Criminal Justice Act 1993

Prospective

14 Defendant who has died or absconded. E+W

(1) The following sections shall be inserted in the M1 Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986, after section 4—

“4A Powers of High Court where defendant has died or absconded.

(1) Subsection (2) below applies where a person has been convicted of one or more drug trafficking offences.

(2) If the prosecutor asks it to proceed under this section, the High Court may exercise the powers of the Crown Court under this Act to make a confiscation order against the defendant if satisfied that the defendant has died or absconded.

(3) Subsection (4) below applies where proceedings for one or more drug trafficking offences have been instituted against a person but have not been concluded.

(4) If the prosecutor asks it to proceed under this section, the High Court may exercise the powers of the Crown Court under this Act to make a confiscation order against the defendant if satisfied that the defendant has absconded.

(5) The power conferred by subsection (4) above may not be exercised at any time before the end of the period of two years beginning with the date which is, in the opinion of the court, the date on which the defendant absconded.

(6) In any proceedings on an application under this section—

(a) sections 2(2) and 3(1D), (2) and (3) shall not apply,

(b) the court shall not make a confiscation order against a person who has absconded unless it is satisfied that the prosecutor has taken reasonable steps to contact him, and

(c) any person appearing to the court to be likely to be affected by the making of a confiscation order by the court shall be entitled to appear before the court and make representations.

4B Effect of conviction where High Court has acted under section 4A.

(1) Where the High Court has made a confiscation order by virtue of section 4A of this Act, the Crown Court shall, in respect of the offence or any of the offences concerned—

(a) take account of the order before—

(i) imposing any fine on him, or

(ii) making any order involving any payment by him, or

(iii) making any order under section 27 of the M2 Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (forfeiture orders) or section 43 of the M3 Powers of Criminal Courts Act 1973 (deprivation orders), and

(b) subject to paragraph (a) above, leave the order out of account in determining the appropriate sentence or other manner of dealing with the defendant.

(2) Where the High Court has made a confiscation order by virtue of section 4A of this Act and the defendant subsequently appears before the Crown Court to be sentenced in respect of one or more of the offences concerned, section 1(1) of this Act shall not apply so far as his appearance is in respect of that offence or those offences.”.

(2) In section 6 of the Act of 1986 (application of procedure for enforcing fines), in subsection (6), after the words “made by”, where they first occur, there shall be inserted “ the High Court, by virtue of section 4A of this Act, or by ”.

(3) The following subsection shall be added at the end of section 6 of the Act of 1986—

“(8) Where the High Court makes a confiscation order by virtue of section 4A of this Act in relation to a defendant who has died, subsection (1) above shall be read as referring only to sections 31(1) and 32(1) of the Act of 1973.”.

Marginal Citations

M1 1986 c. 32.

M2 1971 c. 38.

M3 1973 c. 62.