Confiscation order where person has absconded
27.  Where a person is, by reason of section 26, to be taken to have been convicted of a drug trafficking offence or a serious offence, as the case may be, a court shall not make a confiscation order in reliance on the person’s conviction of the offence unless the court is satisfied —
(a)on the evidence adduced before it that, on the balance of probabilities, the person has absconded; and
(b)having regard to all the evidence before the court, that such evidence if unrebutted would warrant his conviction for the drug trafficking offence or serious offence, as the case may be.
[23
[25/99]