A convicted drug cook is fighting an attempt by prosecutors to seize his family home and two other properties as criminal assets on grounds the move would breach the ACT's human rights laws.
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Stanley Hou, 37, was jailed for a maximum of four years in June after pleading guilty to manufacturing ecstasy from a commercial-grade drug laboratory inside a Hume warehouse for almost a year.
He was charged when police raided the Sheppard Street property, following reports of fumes emanating from the building, and discovered a large amount of precursor chemicals and drug paraphernalia in August 2014.
The Supreme Court soon after granted an application lodged by the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions for three properties linked to Hou to be restrained as criminal assets.
Now lawyers for Hou and his wife, Mai Phuong Do, who still lives at one property with the pair's two children, are arguing the order should be set aside on grounds the DPP acted unlawfully and the order was at odds with sections of the Human Rights Act.
They claim any seizure would be unjust under the Human Rights Act as it would arbitrarily interfere with their family and home, and would amount to double jeopardy.
Double jeopardy is the legal principal which provides that no one may be tried or punished again for an offence for which they have already been convicted or acquitted.
Documents filed in court by the couple's defence lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith, showed Hou's wife bought the Lyneham unit in 2007 and remained the sole owner. Together, the pair also owned two other Canberra properties.
"Neither of the properties were used in connection with the offences for which my client was sentenced and no money received from those offences was applied to the acquisition, upkeep, or improvement of the properties," the documents said.
The case returns to court in October.
The DPP has appealed against Hou's sentence on the grounds it was manifestly inadequate. That matter remains before the court.
