A TAMESIDE-BASED team of specialist police officers has seized more than £40 million of criminally-gained funds in less than six years.
Greater Manchester Police’s Account Freezing Order unit, which works out of Nexus House in Ashton-under-Lyne, has recovered the huge sum since being set up in May 2018.
And the benefits of their work have been felt locally as Tameside Arts has received some of the money through an Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS).
The team of 12, led by Detective Sergeant Ben Miller and Detective Sergeant Daniel Pickup, is part of GMP’s Economic Crime Unit and the force was one of the first police forces in the UK to apply a new law after changes to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was revised to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2017.
That gives law enforcement the ability to freeze and seize funds in criminal bank accounts and on the May 15, 2018, officers successfully did so for the first time to the amount of £13,651.37.
Officers quickly recognised the potential and in total, they have deprived criminals of £21,332,997.52. In addition, the Account Freezing Order Team has also intercepted £20,142,276.31 that was fraudulently obtained or stolen and returned it to the victims and rightful owners.
Examples of their successes include gaining £528,000 from an account of an individual who was importing illegal unregulated pharmaceuticals and selling them for a large profit exposing the public to the dangers of unregulated medicine in 2022.
The next year, £455,159.48 was intercepted by the team. The suspect in this case was sending illegal funds from foreign fraudsters to the UK to invest in new criminal enterprises.
And in January, the team intercepted £243,453.58 from a business account which had been sent by a European business which believed it was investing in a legitimate UK company.
However, it was tricked into sending the money to the wrong account.
That was recovered and returned to rightful owner, who has since invested the money into the UK economy successfully creating new jobs and opportunities for the people of Greater Manchester.
Detective Sergeant Ben Miller of GMP’s Account Freezing Order Team, said: “As a team we have been successful in this field and we’ve extended our expertise to other police forces and public bodies, helping them set up units similar to ours to make the UK less welcoming to criminals who wish to hide their ill-gotten gains in bank accounts.
“Originally, our staff were part of the Money Laundering Team and Asset Detention and Recovery Unit but in 2017 legislation changed that allowed us to freeze money in accounts under civil law as opposed to criminal law and we formed the AFO Team to ensure we could specialise and proactively seize criminal money wherever it is.
“The Account Freezing Order Team, along with our Asset Detention and Recovery Unit and the Confiscation and Restraint Unit, will continue to work together to hunt for, recover and keep criminal assets in order for this to be reinvested into our community and ensure Greater Manchester is a safer place to live.
“We were amongst the first police forces in the UK to use this new legislation successfully in 2018 when we recovered just over £600,000 – this caused largescale disruption to criminal groups and following that initial success, a plan was put in place to form a specialist team that was robust and dedicated to seizing finances from bank accounts which has led to the forfeiture of over £20,000,000.00 from criminals and over £20,000,000 00 returned to victims of crime.
“We will continue to identify, track and seize criminal money held in bank accounts, restricting and ultimately denying criminals’ access to that money and returning funds to victims of crime”