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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drug dealer claims assets seizure breached human rights
Ananova
Thursday 08 Feb 2001 A convicted drug dealer who was ordered to hand over the financial proceeds of his crimes is claiming his human rights were breached. Steven Phillips, 36, from Cardiff, was jailed for nine years at Newport Crown Court in 1996 for importing large quantities of cannabis resin into the UK. He has taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, claiming that the handling of his case had breached his right to "presumption of innocence". His lawyer also argues that the confiscation order had violated his right to the "protection of property", also guaranteed by the Convention, to which Britain is a signatory. The Human Rights court heard that the judge in the original trial had used the 1994 Drug Trafficking Act to investigate Phillips' assets. The trial judge warned him he would face an extra two years imprisonment unless he handed over the estimated =A391,400 proceeds of six years of drug trafficking - including his house. In 1997 Phillips was refused leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence, including the judge's confiscation order. A subsequent application for leave to appeal was refused in January 1998 after a full hearing at the Court of Appeal.
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