Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I would like to pursue a point arising from the points made by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, and my noble and learned friend. I have grave concerns with the Bill because of its lack of focus and the uncertainty it engenders. There is one very seriously unpredictable consequence—and I think that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, gets close to shadowing the point. If one brings in an order against an individual suspected of a serious crime, he might actually welcome it because it will put him on warning that he is being investigated and give him time to get his assets out of the country before he is arrested. There is nothing like enough in the Bill to provide for taking the natural consequences of an order through to the point of freezing the assets or getting a grip on the individual so that it becomes an offence if he moves any of his assets after an order is given against him. I appreciate that that is almost a reversal of what my noble and learned friend said, but it is a serious concern. I have had about £0.5 billion worth of fraud carried out against my companies over the years and I have never succeeded in getting a single penny back, whether or not I have had a Mareva injunction—and I usually have. It just does not do in this Bill to have effectively a free warning system to someone that we are coming for him and there is nothing to freeze his assets.