Nov 2006

• 16/11/06 Issue No 77 - 16/11/06
  On 14 November 2006 the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) reported that it had frozen £36,000 worth of assets belonging to a man being sought in connection with a number of distraction burglaries in South Yorkshire and West Mercia. ......

Oct 2006

• 20/10/06 Issue No 76 - 20/10/06
  Eight valuable paintings, stolen by a Dorset man who forged the will of an art collector, can now be officially passed to the nation, following a criminal confiscation investigation by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). ......

Sep 2006

• 29/09/06 Issue No 75 - 29/09/06
  On 29th August 2006, the London Boroughs of Brent & Harrow Trading Standards Service, assisted by the London Regional Assets Recovery Team (RART) financial investigators, secured a £400,000 Confiscation Order payable within six months at Harrow Crown Court against an importer and wholesaler of handbags and luggage based in East London. ......

Aug 2006

• 23/08/06 Issue No 73 - 23/08/06
  On 1st August 2006 following a hearing at Leeds Crown Court a man was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, a confiscation order granted for £236,000, and a compensation order for £4,383 in favour of Kirklees Council. ......

Jul 2006

• 20/07/06 Issue N0 72 - 20/07/06
  On 27 June 2006 the Court of Appeal ruled that a divorcee should be stripped of a £40,000 settlement because she knew that her lavish lifestyle was funded by her husband’s crimes. In 2004, the husband was convicted in Holland and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in connection with 169 kilos of heroin bound for the UK market and valued at £8.8 million. ......
• 11/07/06 Issue No 71 - 11/07/06
  On 6 June 2006, lawyers for the Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office, working within the Enforcement Task Force, successfully obtained an increased Confiscation Order under section 16 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 for £51,371 at Portsmouth Crown Court. The original Confiscation Order was made in September 1995 for just over £1,000 with a determined benefit of £724,000 after the defendant was found guilty of importing 600 kilos of cannabis resin into the UK. Further assets belonging to the de ......

Jun 2006

• 16/06/06 Issue No 70 - 16/06/06
  Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker announced on 14 June 2006 that Police, customs officers and public agencies seized a record £96 million from criminals last financial year. Since the Proceeds of Crime Act came into effect in 2003, £234 million has been seized. This year police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will have a share of £26 million of total assets seized last year to fight crime. ......

May 2006

• 19/05/06 Issue No 69 - 19/05/06
  Bolton Police are putting a confiscated luxury sports car on public display to warn people against becoming involved in drug dealing and to encourage members of the public to report people they suspect are living a life of plenty, funded through the selling of drugs. ......

Apr 2006

• 27/04/06 Issue No 68 - 27/04/06
  On 30 March 2006 two men from North Wales who were previously convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering offences were ordered to pay back a total of almost £360,000. They were issued with confiscation orders at Chester Crown Court as a result of an investigation by the North West Regional Asset Recovery Team. ......
• 06/04/06 Issue No 67- 6/04/06
  On 28th March 2006 at Swansea Magistrates Court a Cash Forfeiture hearing commenced in relation to three Irish travellers entering the UK through Swansea Ferry Port. At the time they were carrying between them approx £13,000. ......

Mar 2006

• 02/03/06 Issue 66 - 02/03/06
  The Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) has appointed its first Head of Asset Forfeiture. Souymya Majumdar joins the RCPO from the Criminal Prosecution Service where he had significant involvement with the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act. ......

Feb 2006

• 06/02/06 Issue 65 - 06/02/06
  On 24 January the Assets Recovery Agency reported that they have been granted Property Freezing Orders (PFOs) in two separate cases for assets estimated to be worth over £770,000 ......

Jan 2006

• 30/01/06 Issue 64 - 30/01/06
  On 6 December 2005 at Wood Green Crown Court, a judge issued a confiscation order, which will require the liquidation of all of one mans assets. This is in addition to £30,000 forfeited by him last December. ......
• 12/01/06 Issue 63 - 12/01/06
  On 4 November 2005 a man was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment at Snaresbrook Crown Court in a tax credit fraud case, brought by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). ......
• 06/01/06 Issue 62A - 06/01/06
  On Thursday 27 October 2005 at Stoke Crown Court a man was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and ordered to pay a confiscation order of £197,459 in respect of supplying approximately £6,000 worth of crack cocaine. ......