Law and the Justice System

The SFO has secured the forfeiture of over £1.5 million from convicted fraudster Nisar Afzal, 61, of Birmingham.

Plans to require judges and magistrates to consider additional contextual information when weighing up aggravating and mitigating factors during the sentencing process for particular offences have been published for consultation by the Sentencing Council.

https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2019/March/sentencing-council-to-include-expanded-explanations-in-guidelines/?utm_source=Emerge&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=1e18aac7-f8a7-4f80-9a2d-765ce734e982

Use of iris scanning and facial recognition software is part of a wider crackdown on drug trafficking in UK jails

As part of a special focus on Brexit: The deal and no-deal implications for finance and sanctions.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/rethinking-our-sanctions-regime/5069452.article#.XH_G8E2YT5g.twitter

A Shropshire woman who stole more than £600,000 from her family's engineering firm can only repay £133,000.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2019/03/06/couple-will-pay-just-a-slice-of-600k-stolen-from-family-firm/

The president of the Supreme Court has said judges must have the “moral courage” to stand up to their own prejudices, such as favouring accident victims or insurers, workers or employers.

https://www.litigationfutures.com/news/hale-judges-must-fight-claimant-or-defendant-sympathies

There is “room for review” of the legal regulation regime, made more urgent by the developments in technology, Lord Keen, the Ministry of Justice’s spokesman in the House of Lords, said yesterday.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/keen-room-to-review-legal-regulation-regime

The court modernisation programme has realised £158m in “benefits” to date, more than was anticipated, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has revealed.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/court-modernisation-delivers-158m-in-savings-so-far

Tesco admitted wrongdoing over its accounting scandal in order to obtain a deferred prosecution agreement and avoid a conviction. But with everyone charged over the scandal having been cleared, Aziz Rahman examines whether the deferred prosecution agreement process needs revising.

https://www.lexology.com/library/document.ashx?g=1b1af970-c704-42a3-9b30-013e1159918a

The National Crime Agency (NCA) announced yesterday that it has used its new powers of account freezing orders (AFOs) to make an individual forfeit £466,321.72 from three bank accounts.

https://blog.macfarlanes.com/post/102fen1/show-me-the-money-the-nca-uses-its-new-account-freezing-orders-to-seize-signific