Regional Asset Recovery Team

Regional Asset Recovery Team Confiscate More Than £1.2 Million From Criminals In Midlands Over The Last Month

The Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) - a specialist team of detectives and financial investigators - has recovered more than £1m from illegal activity in the Midlands in the last month alone.

The RART works with West Midlands Police, Warwickshire, West Mercia Police, and HM Customs and Excise to ensure criminals working across the West Midlands region, do not benefit from the profit of their crimes.

Using powers available under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, officers are able to seize cash, drugs and assets if they are believed to be the result of criminal activity.

Over the last month £1,237,601.50 has been ordered by the court to be paid back or defendants will face increased sentences without remission.

These cases have included:

• An investigation into credit card cloning in Staffordshire where three men defrauded banks of £170,000 by skimming cloned switch cards through electronic transfer machines. Fifty-nine cloned cards were swiped a minimum of 3,043 times. They were ordered to pay back £169,575.52 in confiscation orders on 27 April 2005 at Stafford Crown Court.
• A HM Customs and Excise investigation into smuggled cigarettes in Birmingham. Three men were ordered to pay £474,972 in confiscation orders at Birmingham Crown Court on 7 April 2005 and as part of the investigation £89,225 was seized in cash and forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
• In another cigarette smuggling investigation in the West Midlands by HM Customs and Excise, one man was ordered to pay £249,252 or face a default sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 9 May 2005.
• In another cigarette smuggling investigation by HM Customs and Excise in the Midlands, one man was ordered by the courts to pay a confiscation order of £254,577 on 28 April 2005.

All confiscated funds are paid into the governments Recovered Assets Incentivisation Fund and recycled into crime prevention initiatives.

Head of the RART, Detective Chief Inspector Gennaro Varriale, is pleased with the message these confiscations orders are sending to criminals. He said: "By scrutinizing criminals' finances and assets and investigating and confiscating any which are believed to be as a result of criminal activity, we are sending a clear message that crime doesn't pay.

"The RART will build on the successes already gained this year to ensure money is taken from criminals and ploughed back into the fight against crime."