Clark & Anor v R
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE ELIAS
- MRS JUSTICE COX
- MR JUSTICE WILKIE
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case concerns an appeal against a confiscation order made following convictions for conspiracy to defraud and attempting to convert criminal property. The court dealt with fraudulent mortgage applications and assessed the benefit derived to be £375,000, ordering confiscation of this amount. The applicants argued that the judge erred in calculating the benefit, but the court held that any proceeds directly or indirectly obtained through criminal conduct are considered a benefit. Applying statutory principles, the judge also found the confiscation proportionate and denied permission to appeal.
Judgment
Lord Justice Elias :
This is a renewed application for permission to appeal against sentence, but only with respect to a confiscation order that was made following the conviction of these two applicants on two counts of conspiracy to defraud contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 (counts 14 and 15 on the indictment) and one count of attempting to convert criminal property, contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 (count 16).
Each of the applicants received a sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, together with certain restrictions which are not relevant to this application. They were sentenced on 28 February 2011 and confiscation proceedings pursuant to the Proceeds of Crime Act were heard by His Honour Judge Goymer on 19 April 2013. The delay was because it was thought appropriate to defer the hearing until after the decision of the Supreme Court in Waya [2012] UKSC 51 a case which considered the proper application of the relevant legal principles in this area and dealt specifically with mortgage frauds. The judge held that each of the applicants had benefited in the sum of £375,000. This was in fact an agreed figure reached in the light of certain findings made by the judge. Their realisable assets were deemed to exceed that amount and thus confiscation orders were made in that sum, to be paid within 3 months or with 2 years imprisonment to be served in default.
The background to this application lies in a series of fraudulent mortgage applications from late 2000 until 2006, as a result of which mortgage companies were induced to grant loans they might otherwise have refused. In all some 19 people were tried in relation to the whole series of transactions, The applicants were convicted in the third of a series of five trials.
There were three transactions in particular in which these applicants were involved. The first involved the purchase of Canister Hall by Julie Clark on 23 June 2003. A mortgage had been obtained from Kensington Mortgage Limited. The application contained false personal details relating to Mrs Clark and the seller, Kelly Mitchell. Kelly had in fact contributed to the purchase price. This gave rise to Count 10 on the Indictment, which was a charge of obtaining a money transfer by deception. Julie Clark, however, was acquitted; the jury could not have been sure that she was a party to the making of the false representations. Stephen Clark was never charged on that Coun