NEW LAWS ON SEIZING ASSETS OF CRIMINALS WELCOMED

The Northern Ireland Assembly has welcomed legislation enhancing the powers
of customs and police officers involved in the confiscation of criminal assets.

Under the provisions of the Draft Financial Investigations Order 2001,
county court judges will have the power to compel financial institutions
and solicitors to co-operate in trawls by customs- and police-appointed
investigators searching for assets acquired through the illegal activities
of convicted criminals.

The report of an ad-hoc committee, which had considered and welcomed the
draft order, was adopted by the Assembly for presentation to the Northern
Secretary.

The deputy chairman of the committee, Mr Billy Bell of the UUP, said the
provisions contained in the order were needed to bolster the powers of law
enforcement agencies and "tackle the mafia-like culture in our society".

Mr Seamus Close of the Alliance Party welcomed the measures. "The law as it
exists is manifestly failing, that must stop," he said. He also looked to
the Criminal Assets Bureau in the Republic and anti-Mafia laws in the
United States. The proposals were "just a step in the right direction, we
must go much further, towards civil forfeiture", he said.

The Law Society of Northern Ireland had expressed concerns to the committee
that the compunction to provide information to investigators could lead to
the erosion of client-solicitor confidentiality. The committee chairman, Mr
Alban Maginness of the SDLP, said he and some other committee members
shared these reservations.

Mr Pat McNamee of Sinn Fein said his party had no difficulty with the
concept that "appropriate authorities" should be empowered to identify and
confiscate the proceeds of crime. However, he said the provisions applied
to everyone, not only criminals.

When banks were required to mount a trawl for information on an individual,
a number of possible aliases and addresses would be investigated. In many
cases these investigations would intrude into the affairs of law abiding
people, he said.

Mr David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party said qualms about the
erosion of client privilege were "ludicrous".

He was certain investigators could be trusted to maintain confidentiality.
Such laws were especially necessary because paramilitary groups made
society susceptible to adopting a US-style drug culture. Paramilitaries
masqueraded as drug dealers to further their political aims "and history
tells us you cannot build a war economy without going to war", he said.