NI may get special powers make criminals come clean on wealth

By Special Correspondent DAMIEN EDGAR

Northern Ireland could be given new powers to force criminals to reveal the origins of their wealth, it emerged today.

The 'Unexplained Wealth Order' measure was introduced in the rest of the UK last month.

This means a High Court judge can issue such an order requiring a person reasonably suspected of involvement in, or of being connected to a person involved in, serious crime to explain the nature and extent of their interest in particular property, and show how the property was obtained.

In an interview with Downtown & Cool FM, Tim Mairs, Head of the Criminal Investigations branch of the PSNI said: “The Unexplained Wealth Order allows us to target that space where we know that people have a lot of wealth but they simply cannot demonstrated any legitimate way that they have earned that money so it really puts the onus on them to demonstrate where that wealth has come from.”

It is confined to cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the individual's known lawfully obtained income would be insufficient to allow him or her to obtain the property, an explanatory Home Office note said.

A failure to provide a response to a UWO may give rise to a presumption that the property is recoverable under any subsequent civil recovery action.

If evidence is produced in response, then a decision will be made on how to proceed using that material.

The subsequent use of the material may include referring the evidence to another body to consider criminal or civil action.

Evidence compelled under a UWO cannot normally be used against the person who provided it in any subsequent criminal prosecution, notes on the new power in England said

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• psni