A defendant has a criminal lifestyle if (and only if) the following condition is satisfied.
The condition is that the offence (or any of the offences) concerned satisfies any of these tests—
it is specified in Schedule 5;
it constitutes conduct forming part of a course of criminal activity;
it is an offence committed over a period of at least six months and the defendant has benefited from the conduct which constitutes the offence.
Conduct forms part of a course of criminal activity if the defendant has benefited from the conduct and—
in the proceedings in which he was convicted he was convicted of three or more other offences, each of three or more of them constituting conduct from which he has benefited, or
in the period of six years ending with the day when those proceedings were started (or, if there is more than one such day, the earliest day) he was convicted on at least two separate occasions of an offence constituting conduct from which he has benefited.
But an offence does not satisfy the test in subsection (2)(b) or (c) unless the defendant obtains relevant benefit of not less than £5000.
Relevant benefit for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) is—
benefit from conduct which constitutes the offence;
benefit from any other conduct which forms part of the course of criminal activity and which constitutes an offence of which the defendant has been convicted;
benefit from conduct which constitutes an offence which has been or will be taken into consideration by the court in sentencing the defendant for an offence mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b).
Relevant benefit for the purposes of subsection (2)(c) is—
benefit from conduct which constitutes the offence;
benefit from conduct which constitutes an offence which has been or will be taken into consideration by the court in sentencing the defendant for the offence mentioned in paragraph (a).
The Department of Justice in Northern Ireland may by order amend Schedule 5.
The Department of Justice in Northern Ireland may by order vary the amount for the time being specified in subsection (4).