Ogden & Ors, R v

For Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 purposes, illicit drugs are criminal property because their manufacture, trafficking and supply necessarily involve a benefit from criminal conduct. An offence under section 327 requires criminal property and a prohibited act such as conversion. It does not require proof that the conversion itself produced a further benefit.

An agreement to sell illicit drugs may therefore amount to a conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property. A charge under section 327 should nevertheless serve a proper public purpose. It may be appropriate where drug dealing is proved but the type or quantity of drugs cannot be established with sufficient precision.

Seven appellants were convicted at two trials before HHJ Mooncey in the Crown Court at Leicester following Operation Chromium. The convictions included drug-supply offences, handling stolen goods and conspiracies to convert criminal property under section 327 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The appeals against conviction challenged, among other matters, the lawfulness of a search of Neil Ogden’s home, the refusal of a submission of no case to answer on the money-laundering counts, jury directions and alleged jury irregularities. Several appellants also challenged sentence. The central issue was whether dealings in illicit drugs could amount to conspiracies to convert criminal property and, for sentencing, how the money-laundering and drug-supply guidelines should be reconciled.

1. Conviction appeals dismissed. The search of Neil Ogden’s home under section 18(1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 was lawfully authorised. Information from the hospital gave the police reasonable grounds to investigate suspected drug supply and controlling prostitution. Donna Wilson’s refusal to implicate him did not remove those grounds. There was also no basis for alleging bad faith or manipulation of the process.

2. The trial judge correctly rejected the submission of no case to answer. Under sections 327 and 340 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the prosecution had to prove that the property was criminal property and that it had been converted. Proof of a further benefit from the act of conversion was not required. Illicit drugs necessarily represented a benefit from criminal conduct and were therefore criminal property.

3. “Conversion” bore its ordinary meaning. It did not require a change in the physical form of the property. Where two people agree to sell illicit drugs, both may conspire to convert or transfer criminal property because both arrange and effect the transaction. The court treated the illustrative dicta in R v Loizou [2005] EWCA Crim 1579 with caution.

4. The generic money-laundering charge was properly used here. Following R v GH [2015] 2 Cr App R 12, such a charge requires a proper public purpose. That requirement was met because the evidence showed wholesale drug supply but did not permit sufficiently precise proof of the drugs involved.

5. The jury directions did not make the verdicts unsafe. Nor was there evidence warranting an inquiry into alleged jury pressure. The possible presence of a retired police officer did not itself create a risk of bias, and jury deliberations remained protected absent exceptional circumstances.

6. Sentence appeals: the court held that the sentencing judge had placed excessive weight on the drug-supply guidelines. For drug-related section 327 offences, the money-laundering guideline remains applicable, with an adjustment reflecting the harm of the underlying offending. Glen Martin’s sentence was reduced to two years; David Atkinson’s total to six years; and Kevin Brough’s total to four years nine months. Stephen Ogden’s sentence appeal was dismissed.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): In [2016] EWCA Crim 6, dismissed the conviction appeals and refused Neil Ogden’s renewed permission application on the abuse-of-process ground. It allowed the sentence appeals of Glen Martin, David Atkinson and Kevin Brough, but dismissed Stephen Ogden’s sentence appeal.
• Crown Court at Leicester: HHJ Mooncey convicted the appellants in two trials in 2014 and 2015, and sentenced them for drug-related offending, including conspiracies to convert criminal property.