Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Parramatta

The Government Doesn't Need a Conviction to Take Your Property

Under the Criminal Assets Recovery Act 1990 (CARA), the NSW Crime Commission can apply to the Supreme Court for a restraining order over your home, your vehicles, your bank accounts, and your superannuation without charging you with a criminal offence, let alone convicting you of one. The application is made ex parte. That means the court hears the Crime Commission's evidence without you present, without notice, and often without you knowing anything until the order is already in force.

By the time you're served, your accounts are frozen. Your mortgage payment can't go out. Your family can't access shared savings. And if criminal charges are also running, you're now on two legal fronts at once, with your own money locked behind a court order you had no say in.

Asset Forfeiture Goes Further Than Most People Realise

The restraining order, effectively a freezing order over your entire financial life, is the starting point. What comes next can strip them permanently from you. Under s22 of CARA, the Crime Commission can apply for an assets forfeiture order that transfers ownership of everything restrained to the Crown. Under s28A, a proceeds assessment order calculates the value of what the court determines was illegally acquired and orders you to pay it.

That reversed burden of proof is what makes CARA so different from a criminal trial. In a criminal trial, guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. In CARA proceedings, you must demonstrate on the balance of probabilities that each asset has a legitimate source. The presumption under s28A is that all property of a person involved in serious crime related activity within the past six years is illegally acquired. Property, real estate, superannuation, vehicles, savings. If you can't trace the lawful origin with documentation, the court can order forfeiture.

Unexplained wealth orders push this further again. Where the Crime Commission suspects your total assets exceed what your lawfully acquired income can account for, a court order can require you to pay the difference. No link to a specific offence is required. The financial pressure compounds: frozen accounts mean no mortgage payments, which means the lender pursues the property independently of the forfeiture application. Two separate threats to the same asset, running at the same time.

How We Contest CARA Restraining Orders and Forfeiture Applications

Most people looking for an asset forfeiture lawyer come to us after the restraining order has already been served. Under s25 of CARA, you can apply to set aside or vary that order within 28 days. That window is everything. Once it closes, the path to recovering restrained assets narrows and the Crime Commission's position strengthens.

We examine the affidavit material behind the application. A restraining order must be grounded in reasonable suspicion of serious crime related activity, and the Crime Commission's evidence doesn't always clear that bar. If the intelligence relied on is stale, sourced from unreliable informants, or doesn't meet the statutory threshold, we challenge the order.

Where restrained property belongs to a third party, a spouse, a business partner, or a family member with no involvement in the alleged activity, we apply for an exclusion order under s25A to separate their assets from the proceedings. Third-party property caught in a blanket restraining order is one of the most common issues we see, and the exclusion mechanism exists precisely for this situation.

For proceeds assessment matters, the defence turns on tracing legitimate income. We work with forensic accountants to document the paper trail: employment records, tax returns, business accounts, inheritance documentation, loan agreements. The Crime Commission's position weakens when every dollar of lawfully acquired property is accounted for.

Whether you were contacted by Cumberland PAC officers in Parramatta, investigated through Merrylands or Granville, or served with a restraining order connected to activity anywhere in the catchment from Westmead through to Auburn and Guildford, our office is at 100 George Street, a 2-minute walk from the Supreme Court registry at Parramatta. We've been defending proceeds of crime matters since 2013, and we appear at courts across Western Sydney and NSW weekly. Call 1800 527 529 (1800 JBP LAW) or book a case review. Open 7 days, fixed-fee options available.

We also apply for court-ordered release of funds from restrained accounts to cover essential living expenses, mortgage payments, and legal expenses. That relief is available, but the application requires genuine need and proper accounting.

Any experienced proceeds of crime lawyer will tell you directly: not every restrained asset is worth contesting through a hearing. In some situations, a negotiated settlement with the Crime Commission that preserves the family home or superannuation produces a better result than fighting across every frozen account. We assess that question at the start, because the decision between contesting and negotiating shapes the entire strategy. For related criminal charges, see our drug lawyers and money laundering lawyers pages. Back to Parramatta criminal lawyer.

The Restraining Order Hearing Decides Whether You Keep What You've Built

A successful challenge to the restraining order unfreezes your accounts, releases your property, and puts your financial life back in your hands. That outcome turns on what happens in the first 28 days after service, and on the quality of the material put before the court.

Where forfeiture proceedings continue, exclusion of third-party property protects family members whose assets were caught in an order that had nothing to do with them. And where the facts support it, a negotiated resolution that preserves key assets can end proceedings without the cost and uncertainty of a contested hearing in the Supreme Court.

The legislation, the evidence, and your financial history all shape what's realistic in any proceeds of crime matter. But the restraining order hearing is where the court decides whether the Crime Commission keeps control of your assets or whether they come back to you. That hearing is shaped by the preparation done in the weeks before it. Book a consultation or call 1800 527 529.