EXTRACT FROM DRAFT EXCO MEMORANDUM
3
Confiscation of property of corrupt Crown servants
5.
Where a Crown servant is convicted of an offence
of being in control of unexplained pecuniary resources or
property disproportionate to his official emoluments, the
court may, in addition to a sentence of imprisonment and
a fine, make an order for payment to the Crown of a sum of
money not exceeding the value of the unexplained resources
or property.
Provision for such orders was inserted in
1974 following recommendations of the Blair-kerr Commission
of Inquiry into Corruption, with the express intention of
preventing Crown servants in particular from profiting from
the proceeds of their corruption. In the years following
1974 a number of such orders were made. At Annex C is a
table showing the amounts of the orders and the amounts
recovered to date. Only about 36% of the total amount has
been recovered; and this only at the expense, in many cases,
of complex and protracted court proceedings by the Crown.
So long as the order remains only a personal debt, a convicted
person may arrange his affairs so as to put his assets
out of reach (while retaining control) and plead poverty.
6.
It is felt in such circumstances that the only
effective procedure is an order for the confiscation of
particular property found at the trial to be in the control
of the convicted Crown servant, whether it is in his possession
or in the hands of a third party.