£7m seized from villains

DCI Rick Jackson with a BMW X5 seized by police

GREATER Manchester Police has recovered nearly £7million from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act in the last 12 months.

Almost 290 POCA confiscation orders and 305 cash seizures have brought in £6,917,686 — well over £2m of it in cash.

A £500,000 house, expensive watches and high-powered cars including Bentleys, BMWs and a Lamborghini Gallardo were among of the items seized or restrained (when assets are frozen) by police.

Among those who had assets seized was Daniella Green of Marfield Avenue, Chadderton, who was forced to sell her Littleborough mansion, acquired by her late partner, cannabis trafficker David Statham — and pay £535,000.

Det-Chief Insp Rick Jackson said: “We want people to know we are not just going to target Joe Bloggs the drug dealer.

“We will be out there targeting his mum, his uncle, his girl friend, anyone that we can prove has benefited for his ill-gotten gains. We are trying to get the message out there, to youngsters who might see young lads with the jewellery and the flash cars, that we will catch up with them.

“While those lads will see prison as an occupational hazard, we hope young people will look at them and think they don’t want to be involved in things like that.”

Assistant chief constable for GMP, Steve Heywood, said: “Our teams have targeted fraudsters, drug dealers and those involved in organised criminality and have been able to take away their prized possessions. We haven’t had to stop once a person is locked up - in fact for our team this is just a starting point.

Within the period almost £1,159,503 has been reallocated under the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme. Victims have been reimbursed where possible, and the police have also received a percentage of the funds recovered. Community projects also receive funds from the seizures.