The Supreme Court handed down its decision in R v Luckhurst [2022] UKSC 23 on 20 July 2022. It clarified that defendants who face both civil and criminal proceedings and are subject to the terms of a criminal restraint order granted pursuant to the terms of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) may seek a variation of the restraint order. 

Such a variation may permit them to spend reasonable legal expenditure for concurrent civil proceedings even where the civil proceedings are founded on the same or similar allegations, alleged facts and/or evidence as those of the offence(s) which gave rise to the restraint order.