Court of Appeal, Criminal Division

Regina v Modjiri

In relation to an application for a confiscation order, a defendant’s part interest in a property was to be included in the available amount on the basis of sale of the property as a whole and receipt by the defendant of his due proportion of the proceeds of sale.

The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, Mr Justice Davis and Judge Roberts, QC) so held on April 22, 2010, when allowing an appeal by the prosecution against a confiscation order of £6,128.14 made on May 1, 2009, by Judge Hillen at Blackfriars Crown Court.

LORD JUSTICE STANLEY BURNTON said that the defendant owned a 25 per cent interest in a flat. The sentencing judge accepted that that interest had no value unless and until the co-owners agreed that the property should be sold.

Under section 84(2)(b) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 property was held by a person if he held an interest in it. Section 79(3) of that Act provided that the market value of the defendant’s interest was to be taken into account, but that provision was concerned only with valuation and not with the realisation of property. It did not require an assumption that a beneficial interest was sold separately.

The correct assumption was that the property was sold as a whole and the defendant received his due proportion of the proceeds of sale.

Source. The Times Online

Published June 01, 2010