The claimant was convicted in the Crown Court of conspiracy to import cocaine. The sentencing judge imposed a confiscation order under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 in the sum of nearly £5·5m with six years’ imprisonment in default. The claimant paid a small proportion but defaulted on the balance and was subject to enforcement proceedings in the magistrates’ court, pursuant to sections 139 and 140 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, when the default term of imprisonment was activated. By that time the total net sum outstanding, including interest, was over £8m. The claimant thereafter made two further part payments and so was entitled, under section 79(2) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, to have the default term reduced in the proportion that the amounts paid bore to so much of the sum “as was due at the time the period of detention was imposed.” The prison authorities, in calculating that reduction, did so by reference to the total net sum outstanding at the date when the magistrates’ court had made the order committing the claimant to prison, resulting in a smaller reduction in term than would have been the case had the calculation been made by reference to the original amount ordered by the Crown Court. The claimant sought judicial review of the calculation. The judge, dismissing the claim, held that in the context of a confiscation order the sum “due at the time the period of detention was imposed” in section 79(2) of the 1980 Act meant the sum due under the confiscation order at the time when the default term was enforced by the magistrates’ court. On the claimant’s appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s decision.

On the claimant’s further appeal—