Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I agree with noble Viscount, Lord Bledisloe, that if these amendments were passed, you would not be able to get at Mr Big. But there are a number of Mr Bigs who use a whole spectrum of smaller agencies in order to perpetrate their large, iniquitous crime. What we must do is twofold. First, we must try to target Mr Big and strip out those steps before one can get to him—those people in the middle. We also have to disable him from taking adventitious advantage of lawful activity which he then uses for his own iniquitous purpose. So you could have a whole series of people engaged in what on the surface is, individually, lawful activity, but is then used by the serious criminal to his advantage to perpetrate the crime. I gave the example of using PO box numbers and properties with others in a way that makes it very difficult.