Subj: UK: Crime's Mr Bigs to have homes and cash seized



Date: Wednesday 11 November 1998



Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)





Crime's Mr Bigs to have homes and cash seized

By John Steele, Crime Correspondent 



PROPERTY and cash enjoyed by criminals will be confiscated without the

need for a criminal conviction under legal changes recommended yesterday

by a Government working party.



A proposed major extension of "civil forfeiture", currently used only when

suspected illicit cash is seized at borders, could lead to confiscation of

hundreds of millions of pounds worth of assets from drug traffickers and

criminals who escape prosecution through lack of evidence. At the moment,

UKP10 million of assets are confiscated by courts in England and Wales each

year from criminals, a tiny fraction of the annual turnover of the illegal

drug

trade which is estimated at up to UKP10 billion.



A smaller amount of cash crossing borders is also held. The Home Office

working group on confiscation urges a range of measures to strengthen the

current law on confiscation of assets from convicted criminals. It also calls

for consideration of a national agency to handle confiscation and a new

criminal offence to cover failure to disclose knowledge or suspicion of money

laundering.



But the most radical of its recommendations - which are likely to lead to

Government legislation, possibly in the year 2000 - will widen the scope of

civil forfeiture and lower the standard of proof needed to persuade the courts

to deprive criminals of their illicit houses, cars, yachts, jewellery and

cash.

The introduction of the proposed legislation would place Britain alongside

only Ireland and America among Western democracies which permit the

removal of assets from suspected criminals without the need to prove a

criminal offence.



Kate Hoey, Home Office junior minister, said: "We do broadly feel that

these are ideas that we can put into practice. We will really put the criminal

on the run."



The acceptance by the Government of the broad thrust of the

recommendations is a reflection of lobbying by senior police officers for a

new law to make it easier to tackle the "Mr Bigs" who control drug-related

and other crime but distance themselves from direct participation. The

success of America's Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organisations laws

is thought to rely on evidence from tapping criminals' telephones. Such

evidence is inadmissible in British courts and there are no plans to change

the

phone tap law.



Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said: "Present arrangements are not

working as well as they should. For every rich criminal, from pimps to drug

barons, there is a victim who has suffered. Villains should pay the price from

their own pocket."



John Abbott, the director general of the National Criminal Intelligence

Service, said: "It cannot be right that the victims of crime continue to

suffer

while the criminals continue to enjoy a life of Riley."