GMP’s specialist team of economic crime investigators in the Asset Detention and Recovery Unit (ADRU) have helped to forfeit £2,136,921.46 in cash and listed assets which has been recovered during a number of police operations across Greater Manchester.
This is made up of 200 successful forfeiture orders – broken down into £2,046,126.46 in cash and £90,795.00 in listed assets.
Just this week at Tameside Magistrates court, the team had 12 forfeitures granted which totalled £428,417.69, made up of cash seized in connection with crime from various districts across Greater Manchester.
Today’s outcome follows a record-breaking year for our Economic Crime Unit that saw almost £15million recovered between April 2022 to March 2023.
The cash has come from a number of warrants and proactive policing operations in Greater Manchester:
Nearly £16,000 cash was found during a warrant in Prestwich, Bury where over 60 cannabis plants were found growing as part of an organised, sophisticated cannabis farm set up with an estimated street value of £15,000. A large quantity of cash was found in the property.
Just over £53,000 was found by officers in Bury in May 2023, after they had stopped a van. The driver became aggressive towards officers and after a search of the vehicle a large bag containing cash, 4 mobile phones and 2 further large black vacuum packed bags containing in total 62 individual bags containing thousands of pounds worth of cannabis packaged ready for sale were hidden in the vehicle.
In July, a man from Oldham was stopped by traffic officers for a routine stop. Upon checks on the vehicle and a subsequent search officers recovered a shoebox hidden in the car filled with £51,000 in cash which was seized under the Proceeds of Act 2002 and forfeited by ADRU.
Money forfeited from criminals and suspected offenders returns to GMP through the Asset Recovery Incentive Scheme (ARIS) and last year we re-invested £5.1 million used to fund community programmes and charities across Greater Manchester, as well as funding policing initiatives and operations to allow us to continue fighting crime.
Detectives are keen to remind criminals that concealing illicit cash will be found by GMP and forfeited to ensure criminals do not reap the financial reward from their criminality.
Detective Sergeant Sarah Langley, from our Asset Detention and Recovery Unit, said: “The team continue to work hard to strip finances from criminals so they cannot keep hold of their assets to enjoy when they come out of prison, if the money has been gained through illicit means we will take this away and use it for better causes in Greater Manchester.
“With every forfeiture of criminal cash, we are tightening our grip on the assets possessed by those involved in any form of criminality”
Detective Superintendent Joseph Harrop, of our Economic Crime Unit, said: “With this latest forfeiture of over £2 million, it demonstrates how we will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that money is being given back into the community to be used to tackle and prevent crime.
“Not only is this a staggering sum of money, it has also been recently recovered which shows how quickly we are able to take action on suspected criminality, take away the assets of those involved, and take them into our control so that they can be re-invested in worthy causes.”
