Criminals were forced to pay back almost £2.5 million by Staffordshire Police in 2010/11, including £338,000 from a Stone drug dealer who was jailed for six-and-a-half years in June 2010.
The force’s Economic Crime Unit obtained 151 confiscation orders totalling £1.973 million and forfeiting £447,424 in cash from offenders between April 2010 and March 2011.
Confiscation orders, issued at court, make offenders pay the cash equivalent of their benefit from crime – meaning they have to sell off homes, cars and other luxury items, such as jewellery, acquired through a criminal lifestyle.
This is what happened to Stone drug dealer Andrew Pettit, who was jailed after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis.
Staffordshire Police has taken back over £12 million from criminals in the last four years and launched the Payback campaign last November with Staffordshire Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Crimestoppers. Payback urges residents to provide information about members of their community who may have profited from crime, with the message ‘Give us a ring to get their bling’.
Det Sgt Nick Jones, from the Economic Crime Unit, said: “Staffordshire Police works hard with the CPS and the courts to take the profit out of crime.
“A significant amount of money recovered is used to compensate crime victims. It also helps fund Operation Nemesis – the force’s ongoing fight against drug dealers – and is ploughed back into community initiatives to fight crime through the Partners Assuring a Safer Staffordshire charity.
“We will continue to strip offenders of their assets and urge anyone with information about people making an unfair living from crime to ring Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
More details about asset recovery in Staffordshire are available at www.staffordshire.police.uk/payback
