Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Money laundering definition

What does Money laundering mean? money laundering is the process of concealing the proceeds of crime so they appear legitimate, including placement, layering and integration. The term is generic, but in the UK the principal offences are defined in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (ss.327–329), with related reporting and tipping‑off offences and preventive duties under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 (as amended). In Ireland, offences and compliance obligations arise under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010–2021. Key features include dealing with “criminal property” (acquiring, using, possessing or arranging) and duties in the regulated sector—banks, solicitors, accountants, estate agents and others—to...

Applying for and challenging Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 production orders: criteria, dominant purpose, candour, procedure and case law (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert

Practice notes

Production orders

A production order allows authorities to obtain material connected to an identified person or business, such as bank records and correspondence. The individual named must either deliver the specified material to an officer or permit that officer to access it. The order can be served on a person or an institution, and may extend to authorising entry to premises to reach the material. This mechanism is available for all forms of ‘investigation’, including confiscation, civil recovery, Money laundering, exploitation proceeds, detained cash, detained property, and investigations into frozen funds and cryptoassets.

The dominant purpose test

In R (on the application of Bowles) v Southwark Crown Court, a pre‑POCA ruling, it was decided that production orders could not be secured under the predecessor to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002) to further a criminal investigation, including one concerning money laundering; they were limited to confiscation investigations. The test asked whether the ‘true and dominant’ purpose of the application was to obtain evidence in support of a confiscation investigation; if not, an order...

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Adam Craggs

RPC

Adam Craggs is a partner and head of RPC's Tax, Investigations and Financial Crime Team. He has been advising clients for over thirty-five years on contentious tax and financial crime matters. Adam typically acts for high-net-worth individuals, family offices, trustees and corporates. He assists his clients on a wide range of contentious tax and financial crime issues, including investigations conducted by UK regulatory bodies. He advises those facing criminal fraud investigations and prosecutions and assists those facing urgent crisis situations, such as a 'dawn raid'. During his long career, Adam has led many cases through the civil and criminal courts, including several before the Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union.He is experienced in managing complex cross-border international investigations, both civil and criminal....

Thomas Jenkins

RPC

Tom is Of Counsel in RPC's Tax, Investigations and Financial Crime team. He has extensive experience in conducting anti-corruption investigations and advising on the implementation and enhancement of compliance programmes. He advises individual and corporate clients facing a wide range of financial crime and regulatory defence challenges, including multi-jurisdictional investigations and prosecutions involving bribery, corruption, fraud, money laundering and market abuse.Tom acts for clients in a broad range of sectors with particular experience in engineering, heavy industry, construction, aviation, oil and gas, finance, commodities trading and healthcare. ...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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