Confiscation Proceedings Bundle

Confiscation proceedings happen after conviction, not instead of it, and they run on their own evidentiary track inside the Crown Court. The defendant serves a statement of financial circumstances, the prosecution responds with a statement of information setting out the alleged benefit from crime, and the defendant replies, accepting or disputing each assertion. Where the figures can't be agreed, the court decides.

The bundle that supports this isn't really about guilt or innocence anymore. It's a financial case: bank records, property and asset valuations, business accounts, and, in many cases, forensic accountancy evidence challenging the prosecution's benefit calculation.

Because a "criminal lifestyle" finding can pull six years of assets and spending into scope through statutory assumptions, the quality of the defendant's evidence often matters more here than almost anywhere else in criminal procedure, since the burden shifts onto them to show specific property was legitimately obtained.