Police recover £1.3m from North East criminals

Home Office data shows Northumbria Police collected proceeds of crime worth £1.3m in the year to March.

Of this, £657,000 was obtained through confiscation orders – which are made during sentencing following a criminal conviction – with the rest coming from powers to seize and confiscate cash through civil proceedings.

The haul was far higher than the value seized in 2018-19, when officers recovered £958,600.

But anti-corruption organisation Global Witness warned the £200m recovered nationally is "a drop in the ocean" compared with the huge volumes of illegal money flowing through the UK each year.

Around £208 million was collected by police forces, councils and government agencies under the Proceeds of Crime Act in 2019-20 – a four per cent decrease from the year before, but up eight per cent up compared to five years ago.

Dominic Kavakeb, of Global Witness, said: “These latest statistics really are a drop in the ocean compared with the billions in illicit wealth flooding the UK.

"It shows how much work there is still to do in the fight against dirty money, starting with the long-awaited property register that can bring transparency to the UK’s property market – for years a top choice for criminals and the corrupt looking to launder stolen cash.”

An National Crime Agency spokesman said they froze or seized £160m in suspected criminal assets during the last, adding: “We continue to use all of our powers, in both the criminal and civil spheres, to disrupt criminals and corrupt elites by recovering the proceeds of their criminality.”