Counterfeit money (not £1 coins)

Derek was convicted of possessing £100 in counterfeit notes, found among £1,600 cash received from the sale of a motorcycle. His solicitor did not apply for Legal Aid as the proceedings were a formality, being an admission that he did indeed possess the forged notes. However, the failure to apply for Legal Aid for the original proceedings deprived his client of any access to funding in the subsequent confiscation proceedings, an unfair situation for someone convicted of a relatively trivial offence and faced with a Statement of Information that alleged he had benefitted by over £500,000 from general criminal conduct over 6 years. The proceedings dragged on over some two years and, I believe, settled on a figure of around £25,000. The Statement of Information failed to account for winnings from cash poker, the accused being a very frequent and successful player at local casinos. The casinos kept records of other kinds of poker, such as that played with chips, but not the cash poker games. Therefore he had the difficulty of finding witnesses to substantiate his winnings. In the circumstances a settlement of around £25,000 was the best outcome that he could have achieved.