Hon Phil Goff
Minister of Justice
Media Statement

17 March 2004

Goff backs civil regime to target criminal assets

The Government is to develop a civil forfeiture regime to improve the effectiveness of criminal asset recovery laws, Justice Minister Phil Goff announced today.

"The existing Proceeds of Crime Act 1991 is a conviction-based regime, which means a person must be convicted of a specific offence before Police can initiate asset seizure procedures," Mr Goff said.

"As well as strengthening aspects of that Act, I am proposing that New Zealand introduces a civil forfeiture regime, based on overseas models but with greater safeguards.

"Under this regime, civil proceedings, separate from any criminal prosecution, could be initiated by government agencies to freeze assets they have reasonable grounds to believe have been obtained as a result of criminal activity.

"Initial restraining orders would ensure that assets cannot be dispersed or their value eroded before the process is completed. Once the Court is satisfied there are reasonable grounds for seizing the assets, the onus will then fall on the defendant to produce evidence that they were in fact lawfully acquired.

"I want to get every dollar I can off the Mr Bigs of the crime world, the people who are making money out of other people's misery.

"Conviction-based forfeiture hits the criminals directly involved in offending. However a non-conviction based regime will more effectively target those who control organised crime but keep themselves at arm's length from the actual offending and are therefore very hard to link directly with specific crimes.

"Stripping criminals of their assets will act as a deterrent by seriously reducing the profitability of their activities. It may also help to prevent future crime by diminishing the capacity of offenders to finance further criminal activity.

Most importantly, it ensures that criminals do not profit from their crime but rather that their illegally gained funds are returned for the good of the community.

"However the introduction of a civil forfeiture regime will not be allowed to divert police resources away from investigation work, as locking up criminals will always be the most effective way of stopping their offending."

Mr Goff said the current Proceeds of Crime Act had only been moderately successful at recovering assets when compared with some overseas models.

"Assets to the value of $8.3 million have been returned to the Crown under the Act since 1995, including $3.7 million last year, which was the biggest annual return ever," he said.

"In comparison, the New South Wales civil-based regime has taken $NZ84 million over the same time. The United Kingdom has taken in about $70 million under its two regimes, and the Western Australian model, despite being so popular with some commentators, has recovered just $2.9 million since 2001.

"While the populations of New South Wales and the UK are considerably larger than New Zealand's, those comparisons do suggest that there is scope for us to have more effective legislation.

"Ministry of Justice officials have already visited Australia to look at regimes in use there, and at the end of this month I will talk to Irish and British officials about their legislation while I am in Europe on other business."

Mr Goff said he hoped to take policy proposals to Cabinet and Caucus later this year and have civil forfeiture legislation introduced to Parliament before the end of the year.

ENDS

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