Over £12m recovered from organised criminals by GMP

Over £12m has been recovered from organised criminals in the last year by Greater Manchester Police’s Economic and Cyber Crime Section.

Since April 2020, specialist investigators have obtained court orders valued at nearly £11m under the Proceeds of Crime Act: just short of £2m has been obtained as a result of Confiscation Orders following a conviction from an acquisitive offence, and around £9m has been forfeited under Civil Recovery Legislation.

Additionally, a further £1.5m has been recovered from bank accounts and returned directly to the victims of crime, thanks to early intervention by the Fraud Triage Desk.

Specialist team members from the Economic and Cyber Crime Section have also seized cash and assets worth approximately £7.5m in the last year, and frozen bank balances totalling £3.5m in preparation for upcoming forfeiture hearings.

The Economic and Cyber Crime Section is responsible for not only investigating fraud and money laundering associated with organised crime, but also the freezing and seizing of assets believed to have been gained through, or intended for use in criminal activity.

It is also tasked with finding out where large sums of cash, often uncovered in stop and searches or during warrants carried out by other units, comes from, and if, on the balance of probability, it came from crime.

Some of the cases investigated by the unit last year include:

• An exhaustive investigation into three companies, selling tokens to stream live pornographic shows on websites in their control that were freely available elsewhere. It was believed that they were being used to launder criminal proceeds
• The seizure of cash discovered hidden in a vehicle stopped on the M62
• The confiscation of over £100,000 after a man fraudulently claimed tax credits and conspired to supply cocaine

As part of the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme run by the Home Office, some of the funds recovered will be returned to Greater Manchester Police, to help pay for further asset recovery work, or fund community projects.  In 2020-21, a total of over £4.5m will be returned to GMP.

Volunteer-run Scam Busters, which operates within GMP as part of the Economic and Cyber Crime Section, also receives a fraction of the funds.

Scam Busters is staffed by volunteers, who contact older victims of crime from a peer perspective, to give advice and support. Since its inception in 2018, they have contacted over 7,000 victims of fraud, and of those contacted, there have only been two repeat victims.

 

 

Financial Investigations Manager, Ben Evans, of the Economic and Cyber Crime Section, said: "This represents our most successful year to date in terms of asset recovery and is especially outstanding considering the challenges faced due to the Covid pandemic.

"The officers and staff involved in asset recovery have worked hard under difficult circumstances and the figures show just how hard they have worked and how well they have performed.

"Although we're very pleased with these results, we are acutely aware that fighting Economic and Cyber Crime is relentless. We will continue to work diligently to remove criminal proceeds from the hands of those who seek to profit from criminality. Asset recovery legislation allows us to disrupt criminal enterprises, deter people from becoming involved in crime and recompense victims and communities blighted by criminality."