DRUG DEALER SENT BACK TO JAIL FOR LYING TO INVESTIGATORS.

A drug dealer who converted his ill-gotten gains into property has been sent back to jail soon after his release for lying in the course of the Proceeds of Crime Act financial investigation.

Terry Knight, 40, of Wrexham Road, Penyffordd, Flintshire, not only failed to disclose, when ordered to do so by virtue of a Section 18 order under the Act, but stated that he did not own any endowments, ISA’s or other such investments.

At his financial hearing in March this year, Knight was ordered to pay almost £97,000 or serve a further two years in jail.

Subsequently, financial investigators from the North West Regional Asset Recovery Team uncovered his endowment, unit trust and ISA portfolio worth £22,129.

Jailing him for four months, His Honour Judge John Rogers QC, told him that it was the only appropriate sentence for “deliberately flouting an order of the Court.”

The benefit of his criminality was reassessed at £139,869.39 and the amount he must pay was raised to £118,853.88. The time he will spend in prison if he doesn’t pay was also increased by another year.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Jones, Head of the NW RART said, “The responses received to provision of information orders is generally bland and unspecific. This sends a clear message that these orders are made in serious judicial proceedings and should not be treated by defendants and those advising them as routine, perfunctory chores.”

CRIME DOESN’T PAY

The Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) provides a multi agency approach to reducing crime through asset recovery.  The activity of the North West RART, which commenced operations in January 2004, is focused on engaging serious and organised crime that operates across individual Police Force boundaries. The RARTs are located in the West Midlands, North West, North East, Wales and London providing coverage across five of the nine Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) regions.

Each RART is staffed by financial investigators drawn from the Regional Police Forces, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and includes a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer. The proactive use of the new powers contained in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 is key to the units’ delivery of an enhanced response to financial investigation. This will ensure that criminal assets are identified at an early stage and recovered through confiscation orders made by the courts following conviction. This in turn reduces the funding available to finance future criminality and increases the amounts available to be recycled into law enforcement and crime reduction initiatives.