Andrew Mitchell QC appears before the Privy Council
Andrew Mitchell QC appeared yesterday before the Privy Council in a Jamaican appeal relating to an investigator’s right to seek material under search and seizure warrants when that material pre-dates the relevant Act that gives rise to the alleged criminal conduct.
Caroline Hay QC of HayLaw (Jamaica) appeared alongside Andrew Mitchell, both instructed by Nigel Parke of The Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA)
The questions to be determined by the Board concern specifically, whether, in the case of:-
A money laundering investigation. ‘background evidence’ must amount to a criminal offence to be relevant to the investigation (and therefore qualify as material to be produced under a production order); and
A money laundering prosecution, ‘background evidence’ mist amount to ‘criminal conduct’ within the meaning of section 2 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2007 [POCA], which came into force on the 30 May 2007 in relation to conduct on or after that date.
Investigations generally, the consequence of upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal would be to deny investigators the right to seek material in an investigation that might inform the inquiry otherwise according to law if that material pre-dates the commencement of the legislation which creates the offence.
Lower Court Judgment - Smalling v Satterswaite & others [2020] JMCA App 15