Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) On hearing an
application under section 85, the court may order the release of any property
if it is more likely than not that —
(a)
immediately before the confiscation of the property, the applicant owned the
property, or was one of 2 or more owners of the property; and
(b) the
property is not effectively controlled by a person who made criminal use of
the property, or by a person who wholly or partly derived or realised the
property, directly or indirectly, from the commission of a confiscation
offence; and
(c) the
applicant did not become aware, and can not reasonably be expected to have
become aware, until after the property was confiscated, that the property was
liable to confiscation under section 6 or 7; and
(d) the
applicant is or was an innocent party in relation to the property; and
(e) each
other owner (if there are more than one) is or was an innocent party in
relation to the property.
(2) If the court
orders the release of the property —
(a) if
the property is money — an amount equal to the amount of the money is to
be paid to the objector from the Confiscation Proceeds Account; and
(b) if
the property is not money, and has not been disposed of — the property
is to be given to the objector; and
(c) if
the property is not money, and has been sold — an amount equal to the
value of the property is to be paid to the objector from the Confiscation
Proceeds Account.
(3) If the objector
establishes the matters set out in subsection (1)(a), (b), (c) and (d), but
fails to establish the matter set out in subsection (1)(e), the court may
order the release of the objector’s share of the property.
(4) In an order under
subsection (3) the court is to specify the proportion that it finds to be the
objector’s share of the property.
(5) If the court makes
an order under subsection (3), the objector is to be paid out of the
Confiscation Proceeds Account —
(a) if
the property is money — an amount equal to the objector’s share of
the money; and
(b) if
the property is not money — an amount equal to the amount that bears to
the value of the property the same proportion as the objector’s share of
the property bears to the whole property.
(6) The court may make
any necessary or convenient ancillary orders.