POWERS allowing gardai to confiscate and dispose of an individual's assets meant "we were on the slippery slope towards the creation of a police state", Mr John Gilligan's lawyer told the High Court yesterday.
Mr Gilligan Is on remand in an English prison on drug trafficking charges.
His lawyers are challenging the constitutionality of the Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996. That statute set up the Criminal Assets Bureau.
He is taking the action against the CAB; Mr Barry Galvin, Inspector of Taxes and Chief Legal Officer, CAB; Mr Frank Lanigan, the Revenue Sheriff of Co Kildare; the Revenue Commissioners and the Attorney General.
Mr David Langwallner, counsel for Mr Gilligan, claimed yesterday that the Proceeds of Crime Act masqueraded as a civil statute when it was a criminal law which circumvented the criminal process.
Mr Langwallner said we were approaching a situation where a police officer could stop a man in the street and warn him that his property was being confiscated unless he could prove it was not the proceeds of crime.
"It is a slippery slope and it is not endorsed or acceptable in any civil jurisdiction," said Mr Langwallner.
There was a provision in the Criminal Justice Act, 1994, which related to the proceeds of criminal activity.
But within that structure there was also an adherence to civil liberties. A person had to go through the process of law and then be sentenced before his assets could be confiscated.
At present, said Mr Langwallner, there was no charge made against Mr Gilligan in this jurisdiction. The Proceeds of Crime Act was silent on whether anything said by the person whose goods were confiscated would be used in evidence.
Mr Langwallner likened the Proceeds of Crime Act to emergency legislation which had been transferred from an emergency powers regime to deal with a difficult international problem.
Such legislation was appropriate where the courts were deemed to be inadequate to protect the public and preserve public order. But, said Mr Langwallner, we were not in a state of emergency. We had one of the lowest crime rates in the world.
The case, which is being heard by Mrs Justice McGuinness, continues today.