Organised Crime
According to the Serious Organised Crime Agency ('SOCA'):
- "Organised crime covers a very wide range of activity and individuals involved in a number of crime sectors."
- "The most damaging sectors to the UK are judged to be trafficking of Class A drugs, organised immigration crime and fraud."
- "In addition, there are a wide range of other threats, including high tech crime, counterfeiting, the use of firearms by serious criminals, serious robbery, organised vehicle crime, cultural property crime and others."
If you are engaged in activity of this sort, you may find yourself the subject of a confiscation order, a restraint order, or a serious crime prevention order, though these orders are not confined to organised crime.
Confiscation Orders
A confiscation order is designed to take from you any property or assets derived from crime or a criminal lifestyle. It can be based on the profit the court decides you ought to have made whether you still have the proceeds of the crime or not. Failing to hand over enough assets may lead to an increase in your sentence.
Restraint Orders
A restraint order can be made before you are convicted of any offence, preventing you from disposing of or dealing with your money or other assets until a confiscation order can be made.
Serious Crime Prevention Orders
A serious crime prevention order can be made against you by the high court if you have committed a "serious crime" - or even if you have not committed a serious crime. You may be judged to have made it easier for someone else to commit one, or behaved in a way that was likely to have that effect.
A serious crime prevention order can interfere with almost every aspect of your life; including where you can live or travel, what you can do, which people you can communicate with and what financial or business dealings you can undertake. It may also require you to submit to questioning or produce documents.