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Proceeds of Crime Acts 2002: Prosecutions

Volume 472: debated on Thursday 6 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful prosecutions under the Proceeds of Crime Acts 2002 and 2005 there have been; how much has been recovered under these Acts; and what the cost of recovery was. (190754)

The information requested covering defendants found guilty at all courts and unsuccessful prosecutions under the Proceeds of Crime Act 20021 for money laundering offences for the years 2003-06 have been provided in the table.

1 The proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Number of defendants found guilty at all courts for offences under the Proceeds of Crime act 2002, and the number of ‘unsuccessful prosecutions’, England and Wales 2003-061,2,3

Found guilty

Unsuccessful prosecutions

2003

15

25

2004

129

101

2005

564

379

2006

1,262

618

1 These data are provided on the principal offence basis.

2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police forces and courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those date are used.

3 Includes defendants acquitted at crown courts, cases dismissed and ‘left on file’, juries discharged and cases where there is ‘no case to answer’ or no evidence offered.

Information provided by the Home Office shows that the total amounts of criminal assets recovered in England Wales and Northern Ireland in the years 2003-04 to 2006-07 are as follows:

£ million

2003-04

54.5

2004-05

84.4

2005-06

96.6

2006-07

125

Information on the cost of recovery is not held by the Ministry of Justice.