Criminals will no longer be able to enjoy a "champagne lifestyle" funded with money made at the expense of victims of crime, announced Home Secretary David Blunkett as the new Assets Recovery Agency became operational. Armed with a formidable array of new powers, the Agency will seize, investigate and recover assets and wealth obtained as a result of illegal activity. The Agency is able to take civil action to recover the proceeds of unlawful activity and to tax any individual or company where there are "reasonable grounds to suspect" they have gained financially from crime.
Currently staffed with 70 full time experts, the Agency is set to expand by more than a quarter by March, with this rapid growth due to continue for at least two years. Already, £8.7 million of cash, suspected as being intended for use in crime or being the proceeds of crime, has been seized by police and Customs officers since the new powers contained in the Proceeds of Crime Act came into force at the end of December 2002.
The Agency’s crackdown on criminals’ assets will be supported by a new Taskforce to make sure that criminals subject to existing confiscation orders pay up in full. £1.3 million has already been netted since the Taskforce began work in December 2002.
New laws tightening up the UK’s defence’s against money laundering come into force today. These require financial institutions to report all transactions where there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to know or suspect money laundering.
Mr Blunkett said: "We are hitting organised criminals where it really hurts – in their pockets. Seizing the proceeds of crime takes away the main motive for crime and stops criminals using the money to build up their criminal enterprises. The Assets Recovery Agency is a powerful and welcome new weapon in the fight against crime. It is coming after the homes, yachts, mansions and luxury cars of the crime barons. But this is also about cracking down on local crooks – well known within their communities for their flash cars, designer clothes and expensive jewellery, but no legitimate means of income. Not only do they blight our neighbourhoods with their criminal dealings, they act as terrible role models for our young people."
"Why should law abiding people work hard for a living whilst the criminal minority live a tax-free life of luxury built on the misery of others? We are cracking down on these parasites and are on course to meet the target of recovering £60 million from criminals during the 2004/05 financial year.
"£1.3 million has already been netted from old confiscation orders that criminals had, until now, simply chosen not to pay. Set up last December, the Taskforce will doggedly pursue outstanding confiscation orders until criminals have paid in full. We are ploughing back the bulk of recovered assets into communities, funding a range of Home Office initiatives from crime reduction programmes to paying for even more police officers. And the Recovered Assets Fund last year recycled £14.5 million straight back into local communities and crime-busting local projects."
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