Do the UK's Provisions for Confiscation Orders Breach the European Convention on Human Rights?

Abstract

For just over a decade now, it has been a principle enshrined in UK legislation that a criminal should not be allowed to retain the proceeds of his offences. The main impetus was the theory that if crime genuinely did not pay, there would be no incentive to commit it and therefore that the confiscation of the proceeds would prove a greater deterrent than a mere sentence of imprisonment. There was also the view, strongly supported by the public, that those who commit serious crimes should not be able simply to sit out a given length of time in prison certain in the knowledge that when they came out, they could look forward to a comfortable existence on their ill‐gotten gains.

Citation

Alexander, R. (1998), "Do the UK's Provisions for Confiscation Orders Breach the European Convention on Human Rights?", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 374-381. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025849