Poca Solicitors are increasingly involved in Confiscation proceedings, not on behalf of a Defendant, but acting for a third party who has an interest or claims an interest in assets that are the subject of the CPS Poca application.
Usually it will be the spouse of a defendant however particularly as a result of the Encrochat cases other third party ‘associates’ of defendants have seen the Crown seek to maintain that convicted defendants have somehow acquired an interest in assets which on the face of it are 100% legally owned by the 3rd Party.
Poca Solicitors have successfully argued against any S.10 A declarations in such cases having to remind the Crown and the Court that the CPS would have to evidence a form of constructive trust in such cases. The exercise that the Crown Court should embark upon in such cases is a difficult one more suited to the Chancery Division of the High Court as effectively the Crown are seeking an equitable remedy involving complex trust and promissory estoppel principles.
It is essential in such cases that lawyers have the experience knowledge and intellect to apply those principles to the circumstances of the particular case before a Poca Crown Court.
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