Confiscation Across The Channel

As a result of a proactive operation led by the Middle Market Drugs Project, a man was arrested on the 19th of January 2006 on his Eurostar journey from Belgium to England. The man, a Belgian national, had concealed over 4.5 kilos of
Ecstasy and Cocaine, both class A drugs in the car battery of his A Class Mercedes vehicle.


On the 26th of July 2006, he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to import a controlled Class A drug and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment with confiscation proceedings being timetabled.

A year later, the man was granted permission to serve the remainder of his sentence in a Belgian prison.

Regardless of the man residing in a  Belgian prison, the London RART carried on the financial investigation on him with the judge sitting at Blackfriars Crown Court ordering proceedings to go ahead with the man giving evidence via a videolink. This procedure had not been tried before and is hoped it will set the precedent for allowing defendants to be pursued for asset recovery outside of the UK.

Just before proceedings commenced, the man stated that he would take no part in a video link confiscation hearing. His unwillingness to co-operate did not prevent the confiscation hearing proceeding and it was held in his absence. On the 20th of May 2008 at Blackfriars Crown Court, the judge sitting made a confiscation order for £220,814.85 with the man being given 6 months to pay, failure to do so will result in a further 3 years being added to his sentence.

The RART is extremely pleased with this result as it highlights how the co-operation of overseas law authorities can overcome criminals attempts to obstruct proceedings and also illustrates the importance of pursuing criminal's assets.

Enforcement of the confiscation order is currently ongoing.