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Postponement and sentence

The court should usually make a Confiscation order before the Defendant is sentenced. However, if confiscation proceedings have not concluded before sentence, then they may be started and postponed so that they conclude after sentence. Such commencement and postponement must take place within 56 days from the imposition of the sentence (ie the period within which a sentence can be varied or rescinded under section 385 of the Sentencing Act 2020—the ‘slip rule’).

Confiscation proceedings may be postponed for a specified period of up to two years from the date of conviction (the permitted period). If there was more than one offence, the date of conviction is the most recent date on which the defendant was convicted.

The period of postponement may itself be extended but any extension must take effect within the permitted period of two years, unless there are found to be exceptional circumstances. In R v Haden, the Court of Appeal held that where exceptional circumstances apply, the period can be extended even where the permitted two-year period has elapsed and