On 29th April 2009 the House of Lords handed down its judgement in R v Briggs-Price [2009] UKHL 19. The judgement, dismissing the appeal by Briggs-Price, confirms that in confiscation proceedings it is open to the prosecution to prove the derivation of benefit from drug trafficking by proving the commission of other specific drug trafficking with which the defendant has not been indicted. To do so does not violate the presumption of innocence. The assessment of benefit by the application of assumptions under DTA 1994 does not amount to a form of procedural safeguard for a defendant. The assumptions are a tool which is presumptively to be used but which is neither mandatory nor exclusive.

Mark Lucraft QC and Tom Payne appeared for the Crown.