Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2005] All ER (D) 16 (Jun)
Neutral Citation: [2005] EWCA Crim 87
Court: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Judge:

Hooper LJ, Tugendhat J and Sir Douglas Brown
Representation William Clegg QC (instructed by Byrne and Partners) for the first defendant.
  Balbir Singh (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the second defendant.
  Nadim Bashir (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the third defendant.
  Peter Collier QC (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the fourth defendant.
  Martin Bethel QC and Andrew Haslam (instructed by the Customs and Excise Prosecutions Office) for the Crown.
Judgment Dates: 7 June 2005

Catchwords

Criminal law - Money laundering - Conspiracy - Reasonable grounds for suspicion that money representing proceeds of drug trafficking or other criminal conduct - Requirement for knowledge that money representing proceeds of drug trafficking or other criminal conduct - , s 49(2) - , s 93C(2).

The Case

In the instant case, the jury should not have been directed to convict the defendants of conspiracy to contravene s49(2) of the or s93C(2) of the where a defendant only suspected that at least part of the money he was dealing with was another persons proceeds of drug trafficking. The jury might only convict of conspiracy to commit those offences if the defendant knew that he was dealing with the proceeds of drug trafficking or other criminal conduct. The court refused the prosecution leave to appeal to the House of Lords, but certified the following questions as raising a point of law of general public importance: 'On an indictment alleging either a conspiracy to commit an offence contrary to s93C(2) of the or an offence contrary to s49 (2) of the (1) Does s1(2) of the apply to a conspiracy to commit such an offence? (2) If s1(2) does apply to such a conspiracy, is its effect that actual knowledge of the origin of the property must be proved or is it sufficient to prove the facts or circumstances giving rise to suspicion or reasonable grounds for suspicion as to its origin?'

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