In the UK, criminal confiscation represents the primary vehicle for the application of asset recovery powers. The criminal confiscation process is as follows:

A financial investigation is carried out by police financial investigators (FIs), tracing the assets and liabilities, income and expenditure of offenders. Financial investigations require the cooperation, usually compelled through various legal orders, of the financial sector, law firms, accounting firms, tax authorities, benefits/social security offices, and the like. These organisations may be based within the local jurisdiction of the investigative body, in-country, or even overseas, and may include law enforcement authorities of foreign jurisdictions.

The findings of the financial investigation are relayed to a judge via a confiscation statement submitted by the FI to the prosecuting authority. A judge determines the merits of the case on a civil standard of proof and serves a confiscation order on the defendant. A confiscation order is in many ways like a fine: while a confiscation order specifies the sum to be paid to the State, it does not specify which assets (e.g. savings, house, car) should be used to satisfy the order.

The success or failure of most confiscation cases rests in large part on the ability of an offender to hide the existence and location of assets (i.e. the proceeds of crime and realisable assets). Cases can take anywhere between several months to several years.