Part of Proceeds of Crime Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 3:45 pm ar 10 Ionawr 2002.
I not sure whether it is the appropriate moment to raise the matter, but the Minister made a point today that is absolutely correct and accurate. He bet that some people did not understand what he had read out. He was spot on. I followed him for the first couple of sentences, though, and there is a matter under clause 306 that worries me. I understand that he said that he had tabled the amendments to clarify that people who had acquired property in good faith would not find themselves in an unholy mess. Will he reassure me that, if a person has money of his own that is nothing to do with crime, and he purchases something in all good faith without any sort of collusion, he will not be caught up in seizure, forfeiture, confiscation, or whatever the correct word is? I think that that is what he was trying to reassure me about. If he was not, I am deeply concerned. I do not believe that buyer beware should apply to that type of situation. Is that what the wonderful legal jargon, carefully prepared by one of the Minister's civil servants, was telling me?