Taylor, Alan

Alan Taylor was convicted in March 2002 of possession of heroin with intent to supply. Mr Taylor received a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment and a confiscation order in the sum of £90,269.96 with two years’ imprisonment in default.

The CCRC received an application for review of Mr Taylor’s sentence in May 2005.

An examination of the prosecution’s figures indicated an error of principle in the calculation of Mr Taylor’s proceeds from drug trafficking (the confiscation order being set at the level of the proceeds rather than the lower figure representing Mr Taylor’s identified realisable assets).

The prosecution had claimed that between his release from an earlier sentence in 1999 and his arrest in 2002, Mr Taylor spent £90,269.96 on tangible assets and “day-to-day” expenditure.

In the same period, Mr Taylor was acknowledged to have had legitimate cash income of £7,000.

Mr Taylor was not given credit for the legitimate income and the full £90,269.96 was taken to have been met from, and therefore to represent, the proceeds of crime.

The CCRC concluded that the calculations underlying the confiscation order contained an error to Mr Taylor’s detriment.

The CCRC referred the sentence in June 2005.

The Court of Appeal upheld the sentence in March 2006.