Crime Bill concern

Lawyers greeted the government's publication of the Proceeds of Crime Bill last week with caution.The Bill, drafted in March, makes police confiscation of criminally obtained assets easier, and replace the need for a lawyer to have actual suspicion of the offence with an objective test of whether a reasonable lawyer would be suspicious.A Law Society spokeswoman said: 'We have always supported the principle of recovering illegally gained assets and welcome the government's commitment to this end; however, we are anxious that the methods and procedure for recovering these assets should be fair.'But solicitor John Wadham, director of civil rights group Liberty, said the Bill threatened innocent people and would undermine the core standards of criminal justice, especially as those merely suspected of involvement in crime could have assets confiscated.Louise Delahunty, chairwoman of the Law Society's money laundering and serious fraud task force, said: 'With criminal conduct now defined as any offence, there is a danger of over-reporting to the National Criminal Intelligence Service and concerns over how the new test [will work].'Jeremy Fleming