Commentary on Sections Interpretation Section 147: Tainted gifts and their recipients
224.Like the Act, the earlier legislation enables gifts made by the accused to other persons to be recovered in satisfaction of the confiscation order, and makes ancillary provision (for example, to enable assets of the recipient of a gift to be placed under restraint). Under the existing legislation, a tainted gift is described as a “gift caught by the Act”. Section 144 reappraises and aligns the two different tainted gift schemes currently found in the drug and non-drug legislation. The new scheme provides that, where the court has decided that the accused has a criminal lifestyle, any gift made by the accused to any person in the period beginning six years before the institution of proceedings is caught, together with any gift at any time out of the proceeds of crime. This definition would apply both at the confiscation hearing and for the purposes of enforcement. However, if the court decides that the accused does not have a criminal lifestyle, only gifts made after the commission of the offence are caught. Again, this would apply at the confiscation hearing and for the purposes of enforcement.