R v Harkin (Appellant) (Northern Ireland)

The Supreme Court heard an appeal by two defendants, McCool and Harkin, who were convicted of benefit fraud. McCool was convicted of four offences, one of which occurred before the commencement of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Harkin was convicted of offences which all occurred after the Act commenced. The Crown Court made confiscation orders against them under the 2002 Act. The appellants argued that the court did not have jurisdiction to make the orders because of their convictions of pre-commencement offences. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals. The Supreme Court allowed McCool and Harkin's appeals. The majority of the Supreme Court held that the confiscation orders should have been made under the confiscation regime in force at the time the earliest of the offences concerned was committed. The confiscation orders made under the 2002 Act should be quashed and replaced with orders under the earlier legislation. Lord Kerr disagreed with the majority. In his view, the confiscation orders made under the 2002 Act were valid because the Crown disclaimed any reliance on the pre-commencement offences. There was no unfairness to the appellants in making the orders under the 2002 Act. The appellants were subject to the confiscation consequences of their post-commencement offences, as required by the 2002 Act, unless those consequences differed in some way from what they would have been if the earlier offences had never occurred. They did not.