The High Court has temporarily barred two Northland men facing serious drug charges from selling their prized assets. Interim restraining orders have been issued against Kelly Richard Dodd and Clinton Monk by the High Court at Whangarei. The orders prohibits Dodd from either selling, disposing off or mortgaging his motorcycle and Monkfrom doing the same to a piece of land owned by his father. The Solicitor General applied for a confiscation order of property possibly obtained from the proceeds of crime. The pair will only be affected by the legislation if they are found guilty, or admit the charges. If not guilty, the orders do not apply. The Proceeds of Crime Act 1991 permits police to apply to have the assets that a criminal has used to commit a serious crime or which they have obtained from crime, or purchased with the profits of crime, forfeited to the Crown. Under this Act, if someone is convicted of an offence that carries at least a five-year maximum penalty, then the police may apply to have any of their assets related to the offence forfeited to the Crown. Crown prosecutor Mike Smith said the interim order was reviewed every six months. Monk's Auckland-based lawyer John Anderson said the latest High Court call-over was to ascertain what position the matters were at to allow for evidence to be filed on the drugs charges his client faces. Mr Anderson said it was not a hearing but a procedural matter that would not result in the seizure of either the land or the motorcycle. "It simply means that the land cannot be dealt with, either by being disposed off or mortgaged, until such time as the court decides," he said. The Criminal Proceeds and Instruments Bill was introduced in Parliament in June 2005 and a number of changes were made in order to enhance the mechanisms to seize criminal proceeds. It allows the courts to order the forfeiture of assets of people proven - on the balance of probabilities - to have benefited from serious criminal activity. The forfeiture will apply to those assets which the person cannot prove that they have acquired legitimately and regardless of the fact that the person has not been convicted of criminal offending.
