1. The Organised Crime Act (OCA), which was passed in Parliament on 17 August 2015, will take effect from 1 June 2016.
2. The OCA strengthens the ability of law enforcement agencies (LEAs), such as the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), to prevent and disrupt activities of Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs). It will allow the authorities to deter and tackle organised crime at all levels - from the highest echelons of OCGs who mastermind or finance the activities, to members of OCGs who carry out these criminal activities.
3. The OCA will criminalise OCG-related activities, such as instructing a person to commit offences for an OCG, giving help to an OCG, recruitment of members and being an OCG member. Those who commit serious crimes, such as drug trafficking and corruption, as part of an OCG, will also be subjected to enhanced penalties.
4. The OCA provides for the Courts to issue Preventive Orders to constrain the activities of OCGs. These Orders are the Organised Crime Prevention Order (OCPO), the Financial Reporting Order (FRO) and the Disqualification Order. The OCPO and FRO can be issued under a conviction regime (upon a criminal conviction) or a non-conviction regime (through a civil proceeding without a criminal conviction). Only the High Court can issue these Orders under the non-conviction regime.
5. The OCA will also introduce a non-conviction based civil confiscation regime to confiscate the benefits from organised crime activity. This regime complements the existing conviction-based regime for the confiscation of benefits from drug trafficking or serious offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act. A person's benefits from organised crime activity can be confiscated under the civil confiscation regime if the Public Prosecutor is able to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the person has carried out organised crime activity. All civil confiscation proceedings will be heard in the High Court.
6. For more information, please refer to:
- Press Release for First Reading of the Organised Crime Bill
- Second Reading Speech on the Organised Crime Bill
- Response Speech on the Organised Crime Bill
