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Section 245A: Application for property freezing order

Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 · 2002 c. 29View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 5: Civil recovery of the proceeds etc. of unlawful conduct — Chapter 2: Civil recovery in the High Court or Court of Session

Where the enforcement authority may take proceedings for a recovery order in the High Court, the authority may apply to the court for a property freezing order (whether before or after starting the proceedings).

A property freezing order is an order that—

specifies or describes the property to which it applies, and
subject to any exclusions (see section 245C(1)(b) and (2)), prohibits any person to whose property the order applies from in any way dealing with the property.

An application for a property freezing order may be made without notice if the circumstances are such that notice of the application would prejudice any right of the enforcement authority to obtain a recovery order in respect of any property.

The court may make a property freezing order on an application if it is satisfied that the condition in subsection (5) is met and, where applicable, that the condition in subsection (6) is met.

The first condition is that there is a good arguable case—

that the property to which the application for the order relates is or includes recoverable property, and
that, if any of it is not recoverable property, it is associated property.

The second condition is that, if—

the property to which the application for the order relates includes property alleged to be associated property, and
the enforcement authority has not established the identity of the person who holds it,

the authority has taken all reasonable steps to do so.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.