A convicted armed robber has lost a landmark case to prevent his house being seized by Northern Ireland's Assets Recovery Agency, it emerged today.
In one of its first cases in Belfast, the agency brought civil proceedings to recover a house owned by Cecil Walsh, serving a six-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
Walsh claimed that as well as having the safeguards afforded to respondents in civil proceedings he should also be entitled to the human rights protections provided to defendants in criminal trials.
The agency is attempting to recover net assets of £85,000 sterling in the High Court. In April 2004, Walsh argued that the civil recovery proceedings were criminal and not civil so he had enhanced protection provided by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Walsh's lawyers had appealed after the argument was dismissed by Mr Justice Coghlin in the High Court in Belfast, but the Court Appeal decided yesterday that he was not entitled to these additional protections as the proceedings against him were clearly civil rather than criminal.
Ms Jane Earl, director of the Agency described the case as significant. "The judgment confirms that we can pursue assets obtained from unlawful conduct committed at any time in the last 12 years," said.