Chief Justice Cheung, Mr Justice Ribeiro PJ, Mr Justice Fok PJ, Mr Justice Lam PJ and Lord Collins of Mapesbury NPJ
Date of Hearing:
4 March 2024
Date of Judgment:
10 April 2024
______________________________
JUDGMENT
______________________________
Chief Justice Cheung and Mr Justice Ribeiro PJ:
1.
In this appeal, it falls to the Court to consider constitutional and other legal challenges raised against the practice of the Commissioner of Police (“
CP
”) involving the issue of “Letters of No Consent” (“
LNCs
”) to banks regarding their dealing with property which is suspected to represent the proceeds of an indictable offence in the context of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance
[1]
(“
OSCO
”).
A. The factual background
2.
The appellants are members of the same family who had, since 2019, come under suspicion of the Securities and Futures Commission (“
SFC
”) for having committed (with others) offences
[2]
involving market manipulation of over 10 different stocks in Hong Kong between September 2018 and November 2020. It was suspected that profits of those unlawful transactions had been transferred to accounts maintained by the appellants with four banks in Hong Kong.
[3]
3.
After investigation and searches of the appellants’ premises, the SFC referred the matter to the police who took certain actions which were followed by the banks disabling or “freezing” the above-mentioned bank accounts. The steps taken by the police and the banks are set out below. They included the police informing the banks of their suspicion that the funds represented the proceeds of an indictable offence, their issue of LNCs and the banks’ subsequent maintenance of the disablement of the accounts.
4.
On 18 February 2021, the appellants applied for leave to seek judicial review of the CP’s decision to issue and maintain the LNCs in respect of the appellants’ bank accounts, and to fail or refuse to consent to the withdrawal of any funds from the accounts (a practice referred to by the appellants as “the No Consent Regime”).
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