Commentary on Sections Part 5: Civil Recovery of the Proceeds etc. of Unlawful Conduct Chapter 4: General.Recoverable property Section 306: Mixing property
427.Property which was not itself obtained through unlawful conduct at any stage can come to ‘represent’ such property, and therefore be potentially recoverable, not only by being traceable by the enforcement authority under section 305 but also by having become mixed with recoverable property. Because the ability to follow property under section 304is dependent on the property retaining its identity, it may become impossible to follow property when it is mixed into other property.
428.Subsection (3) gives some illustration of this problem. If cash which is the proceeds of drug dealing is paid into a bank account which is in credit through deposits of honest earnings, it becomes impossible to identify any individual withdrawals which may be made from that account as being the ‘dirty’ money rather than the clean. Subsection (2)therefore provides that in such circumstances so much of the ‘mixed’ property as is attributable to the recoverable property will be representative of the original property, and is therefore itself recoverable.