Councils helping to crush lavish lifestyles of criminals

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Councils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are using the full force of the law to help stamp out the lavish lifestyles of many criminals.

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), trained officers can become 'accredited financial investigators' to help ensure those benefiting from crime pay back what they owe to society.

Depending on the level of involvement, the Home Office Incentivisation Scheme allows councils to recover up to 37.5% of the confiscated assets, with the remainder being distributed between HM Court Service and central government. This money is usually reinvested by councils back into undertaking enforcement work such as:

-tackling benefit fraudsters
-dealing with counterfeit goods
-tackling serial fly tippers and other environmental crime
- tackling loan sharks

As well as victims of crime, such as vulnerable adults, being compensated where necessary, councils are also reinvested the funds to help improve local areas and have installed park regeneration schemes, anti-graffiti projects and youth clubs. All designed to improve the local environment and reduce crime.

Cllr Paul Bettison, chairman of Local Government Regulation (formerly LACORS), said:

"The Proceeds of Crime Act is a valuable crime busting tool for councils. With any crime someone always suffers the consequences. Why should those who believe they are above the law be able to fund their lavish lifestyles at the expense of others?

"Whether it's selling harmful counterfeit goods, damaging the environment, exploiting vulnerable tenants or charging outrageous amounts of loan interest to people at the end of their financial tether, it simply won’t be tolerated by councils."

Illegal Money Lending Teams working with councils have successfully challenged a number of loan sharks across the country:

-In Portsmouth an illegal money lender was caught charging interest rates as high as 11,000 per cent and was ordered to pay back £337,935 plus costs of £25,000.
-In Wales an ex-taxman turned loan shark was ordered to pay £79,330.
-In Manchester a loan shark was convicted of blackmail and illegal money lending and ordered to repay £1.2 million.
-In Birmingham a convicted loan shark has been ordered to pay over £163,000 before 25 December 2010 or face two years in jail. The council will recover £53,790.

Other examples of where councils have used the Proceeds of Crime Act to protect local communities and demonstrate that crime does not pay include:

West Berkshire Council trading standards secured funding from various confiscation orders. £14,000 has been used to part fund a police support officer to work with businesses on local industrial estates and £43,000 will be spent over four years to extend the Berkshire Credit Union into the West Berkshire area (including a contribution of £15,000 in 2010-11).

The London Boroughs of Brent and Harrow trading standards service investigated a company selling fake handbags which resulted in fines of £400,000 and the council received £132,000 through the Incentivisation Scheme.

City of York Council trading standards team uncovered a market trader selling counterfeit clothing. Court proceedings followed and he was ordered to repay £273,015. The council received £70,312.

Plymouth City Council ensured that a car clocker jailed for six months back in December 2009 was made to pay back £67,710. Costs of £2,500 were awarded to the council.

Nottingham City Council was involved in a prosecution against an unlicensed HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) student landlord. The Court ordered a £14,700 fine after environmental health officers uncovered potentially life threatening hazards including untested wiring and obstructed escape routes. A similar case in Liverpool resulted in another rouge landlord being fined £23,000 with Liverpool City Council receiving an incentivisation payment of £7,500.

Hampshire County Council Trading Standards, working with the regional illegal money lending team, helped to ensure that money seized from a loan shark preying on a socially deprived area was forfeited and given back to locals. Using this forfeited money, anyone choosing to open a savings account with the Hampshire Credit Union was given £20 to get them started.