CONFIDENTIAL
3 -
機密
Mr Mortimer said that at present Hong Kong had no satisfactory method of recovering the proceeds of drug
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trafficking. Although some measures did exist in legislation, they were inadequate. Two options had therefore been proposed.
Automatic Indebtedness Scheme
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A
Mr Mortimer said that the scheme was simple, straightforward, and required only 17 additional staff. person convicted of a serious drug-related offence (such as manufacturing or trafficking) and sentenced to a term of imprisonment would become automatically indebted to the Crown to the sum of $40,000 for every month of imprisonment. In reply to Mr WONG, Mr Mortimer said that the figure 40,000 was an arbitrary figure, but it had been calculated as representing the likely profits of large-scale drug trafficking.
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Mr Martin LEE asked whether there was to be a minimum term of imprisonment, say of five years, before the scheme became effective. Mr Mortimer replied that this was not the intention, but said that the crimes to which the scheme would be applied were regarded as serious crimes. Mr LEE said that even a sentence of six months would produce a debt of nearly a quarter of a million dollars, and the scheme would in fact be applied to practically every offence in the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance except posession. Mr Mortimer said that the scheme would provide an opportunity for the defendant to show that he did not have the means to pay the debt. If, however, he was able to pay but did not pay a further prison sentence would be imposed according to a sliding scale of up to ten years, and on his release from that sentence the offender would still be indebted. After the additional sentence, however, a further sentence could not be imposed for non-payment of the debt.
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Mr Martin LEE asked what amount of unpaid debt would result in the maximum additional sentence of 10 years. Mr Mortimer said that this has not been worked out yet, but would probably be about $5 million. Mr Findlay added that in the UK scheme an unpaid debt of £lm would attract the full additional sentence of 10 years.
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Mr Mortimer said that the Attorney General could institute bankruptcy proceedings requiring disclosure of the offender's assets. Failure to disclose assets could lead to a further term of imprisonment. The Attorney General had the discretion to inform courts when it was clear that a defendant had no assets. There was also a provision in the scheme to restrain a defendant's assets during the investigation stage either by means of a court order or through powers given to the Commissioner of Police. In order to take account of assets that may have been transferred to a third party before the investigation the law would include in the definition of assets any assets transferred over a period of five years before the commencement of criminal proceedings.
CONFIDENTIAL
機密
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