This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Moves to seize traffickers' criminal assets
19/11/2003
Anyone found to be trafficking people for
prostitution or pornography inScotlandwill get their ill-gotten gains stripped from them
under new moves by the Executive to crack down on
crime.
Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry today received
the Scottish Parliament's Justice 1 Committee backing
for his proposal to give judges powers to confiscate
the assets of "Mr Bigs" who profit from trafficking
people for prostitution or the production of obscene or
indecent material.
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Amendment (Scotland) 2003 Order will enable the courts in these cases to
assume - unless proved otherwise - that all assets from the
six previous years have been gained from criminal
activity. They can then order their confiscation.
This would include money and assets
represented by any other property such as cars or
jewellery.
If approved by the Parliament, the Order will add
trafficking people for prostitution or for the making
or production of obscene or indecent material to the
list of offences which indicate a "criminal lifestyle"
in Schedule 4 of the Act.
Mr Henry said:
"Trafficking individuals for the purposes of
prostitution or the production of obscene material is a
crime. It is an exploitative crime.
I believe it is on a par with those other
crimes by which individuals seek systematically to make
money out of criminal activity and the suffering of other
people.
"The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 already defines
specific offences which are in themselves indicative of
criminal lifestyle: drugs trafficking, directing
terrorism, trafficking in people or arms,
counterfeiting, pimping or running a brothel, blackmail
or extortion.
"We want to hit the criminals where it hurts - in the
pocket. We want to minimise the financial incentive
for this type of crime.
"This new Order is about tough, effective
sanctions on the hard-core minority of criminals
connected to this despicable trade."
The offence of trafficking in prostitution etc was
created by section 22of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and came into force onJune 27, 2003. It includes arranging the travel of an
individual to, from or within the
UKfor the purposes of prostitution or for the making or
production of obscene or indecent material. Maximum
sentence if convicted on indictment is 14 years'
imprisonment or an unlimited fine or both.
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 includes provision for
courts to assessand confiscate benefit gained from criminal
conduct. If a person is convicted of a "lifestyle"
offence listed in Schedule 4 to the Act, e.g. pimping,
brothel-keeping, drugs trafficking, arms trafficking,
blackmail and money laundering
the court can assess his or her assets from
the preceding six years for the purposes of making a
confiscation order.
The proposed Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
(Amendment)(Scotland) Order 2003announced today will add trafficking in prostitution
or for the purposes of making or producing obscene or
indecent material to the above list of lifestyle
offences. It has to be approved by the Scottish
Parliament before it can come into effect.