Proceedings taken by the criminal assets bureau

• Author: Richard Barrett
• Position: Barrister, Advisory Counsel at the Office of the Attorney General and formerly Bureau Legal Officer at the Criminal Assets Bureau
• Pages: 229-238

2007] The Criminal Assets Bureau 229

PROCEEDINGS TAKEN BY THE

CRIMINAL ASSETS BUREAU

RICHARD BARRETT∗

INTRODUCTION

The Criminal Assets Bureau, though a ‘National Unit’

within the structure of the Gardaí, is a creature of statute,

introduced to spearhead inter-agency action in the investigation

and identification of criminal assets. It principally acts to restrain

criminal assets with a view to:

• returning them to other parties;

• the payment of revenue debts; or

• to be eventually disposed of by the State.

The background to the establishment of the Bureau is well

known1 and its legal antecedents are the provisions in the Taxes

Act concerning tax assessments, the provisions in the Criminal

Justice Act 1994 concerning suspicious transaction reports and

criminal confiscation, the precedent of the Offences Against the

State (Amendment) Act 1985 restraining funds linked to unlawful

organisations and the international conventions in relation to drug

trafficking and money laundering.

The fundamental purpose of the laws relating to the

Criminal Assets Bureau is disruption and discouragement rather

than elimination of criminal activity through enforcement of the

criminal law. The Bureau seeks to remove the motive (profit) and

means (operating capital) to commit crimes. The underlying legal

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∗ Barrister, Advisory Counsel at the Office of the Attorney General and

formerly Bureau Legal Officer at the Criminal Assets Bureau. The views

expressed are the author’s own and do not necessary reflect those of either of

those organisations.

1 See, for example, McCutcheon & Walsh, The Confiscation of Criminal

Assets: Law and Procedure (Thomson Round Hall, 1999) pp.3-8; and Walsh,

Criminal Procedure (Thomson Round Hall, 2002) paras. 2.06 to 2.13.