Payment of a Confiscation Order – Does an appeal stop the clock?

Confiscation orders are payable immediately unless the court allows time for payment under s 11 Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Any period allowed for payment should not in the first instance exceed three months, although a further extension up to a total delay of 6 months may be granted.

In May and Others [2005] EWCA Crim 367 the court considered whether the appellant’s appeal proceedings had any impact on the time allowed for payment. The court held:

“No authority has been cited for the proposition that the time to pay a confiscation order runs from the date of the determination of an appeal against it, and in our judgment the proposition is unsound in law. In principle the fact that an appeal is pending does not operate so as to suspend the operation of any sentence or order.

There is no reason why steps preparatory to the raising of the money specified in the confiscation order should not have been taken while May’s appeal was pending. The Appellant was not entitled to assume that his appeal would be successful and, as indicated above, as a matter of law time was running during that period. Moreover, it would be wrong as a matter of principle for Appellants to be encouraged to believe that the bringing of an appeal would be likely to lengthen the time given for payment, even if the appeal was unsuccessful. We see no reason to interfere with the terms of the order made below.”

The prosecution takes a robust approach to enforcement of confiscation orders, and it is, therefore, essential that legal professionals and defendants are aware that action to satisfy such orders needs to be speedily taken, otherwise there is a real risk that imprisonment in default will follow.

Andrew Keogh, Barrister