Council successfully applies for reconsideration of available amount under POCA

A local authority has successfully applied under section 22 of the Proceeds of Crime Act for the reconsideration of the available amount for breach of planning enforcement notices, it has been reported.

The application on behalf of the unnamed council was made by Giles Atkinson of 6 Pump Court.

He argued that an indemnity against the making of the order under section 22, awarded to the defendant by the High Court in parallel civil litigation, was property which had the full value of that indemnity (£188,000) so that it could be included in the new calculation required under section 22.

6 Pump Court said the court “found that the indemnity had value for the purposes of section 22 notwithstanding that the ‘trigger event’ for the indemnity was the making of the order itself under section 22 by the court”.

The set said the case arose from unlawful conversion of a property to flats, contrary to section 179 TCPA 1990 and the defendant had been required to pay £100,000 by way of confiscation order, following his conviction, that sum representing the available amount in the shape of his equity in another property.

“The indemnity the defendant won in the civil courts arose from his successful claim against the insurers for his conveyancing solicitors (since gone out of business) who had failed to advise him of the planning status of the property he had gone on to convert upon its purchase by him,” 6 Pump Court added.