£943,667 of criminal gains confiscated (From Milford Mercury)

£943,667 of criminal gains confiscated

6:01pm Saturday 24th May 2008

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Dyfed-Powys Police has confiscated over £940,000 of ill gotten gains in the last year.

Between April 2007 and end of March 2008 the force's Financial Crime Team recovered £943,667.38 from criminals.

Over £770,000 was recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act and the rest was forfeitures and through the Regional Asset Recovery Team.

The money has largely come from drug related offenders and fraudsters, including £375,000 from a man found guilty of producing cannabis and £250,000 from a woman who stole from a doctors' surgery.

A proportion of the money recovered is given to police to spend on financial investigation and community projects.

DI Richard Hopkin said: "Through the FCT we are able to target the offenders financially.

"They will all have been dealt with by the court for their offences and some will be given a custodial sentence.

"We research their background to see how much money they have made from their criminal activities and then apply to have this confiscated from them.

"It is not necessarily cash amounts we look at but other items which may have been purchased with ill-gotten gains, such as cars and houses.

"As well as removing the trappings of their luxury life styles we are also removing their ability to be role models within the community. The message is simple - under the Proceeds of Crime Act, crime doesn't pay."

Some money recovered last year was used to support the Not in My Neighbourhood week in Pembrokeshire.

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