June 14, 2005: £84m of Criminal Assets Recovered

Criminal assets worth a record £84 million were recovered during the last year, Home Office Minister for Financial Crime Paul Goggins has announced. The record figure for 2004-2005, compared with £54.5 million recovered the previous year, is the result of new powers introduced by the Government in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

For the first time, police forces will receive a £13 million share of the recovered money. The police service receives one third of receipts recovered in 2004-05 above £40 million. The Home Office receives the first £40 million to pay for existing expenditure commitments on asset recovery. The one third above £40M is divided among individual police forces in proportion to the contribution each force had made to the total value of assets recovered. This is due to increase to half of all receipts recovered above £40 million next year (2005-2006). A new scheme will be extended to the other agencies involved in asset recovery the following year (2006-2007).

Among the highest performing forces receiving the greatest amount of additional funding are the Metropolitan Police who will receive over £4 million, the National Crime Squad, who get just over £1.8 million, Lancashire Constabulary, who receive an extra £570,517 and Greater Manchester Police, who get a boost of £526,360.

Paul Goggins said:

"This achievement sends a clear message to criminals: crime does not pay and profiting from crime will not be tolerated. Recovering criminal assets is a vital part of the Government’s strategy to cut crime and make the criminal justice system more effective."

Assistant Chief Constable Roger Aldridge, the Association of Chief Police Officers lead on Asset Recovery, said:

"We welcome the results of the new incentive scheme. This will enable police forces to plough back some of the recovered criminal assets into more financial investigation capability, and thereby continue to improve performance next year. Asset recovery has to become part of our mainstream activity. It is an effective method of reducing crime by dismantling criminal empires, both small and large. This is a ‘win-win’ for law enforcement and the communities they serve."