Confiscation could make you lose the plot
Taking the cash out of crime.
The Wales Regional Asset Recovery Team has taken Angela Jenkins, from Abercynon, South Wales, back to court to payback the money made from her criminal activities.
Merthyr Crown Court established that Angela Jenkins, age 47 yrs, benefited from crime to the amount of £232,141,95. From this amount she will have to payback £81,479.50 within 6 months. Failing this, by default she will be imprisoned for 21 months and still be required to payback the amount.
Angela Jenkins was selling counterfeit designer labelled merchandise, and made several trips abroad to buy the counterfeit goods and tobacco. She had also employed others to sell on her behalf.
In September 2004, South Wales Police and Rhondda Cynon Taff Council officers searched her home and found a numerous items of counterfeit designer labelled clothing and tobacco worth thousands of pounds.
All the seized goods were tested and shown to be counterfeit. She was subsequently charged with a number of offences relating to Trades Mark Act and the Tobacco Product Regulations.
The financial investigation identified that Jenkins was not working and was in receipt of several different kinds of state benefits. She had, however, been able to credit her various bank accounts with significant sums of money and had even purchased a plot of land upon which she was in the process of building a detached property with 4 bedrooms.
In May 2005, she pleaded guilty to these charges, and was sentenced to a two year community rehabilitation order in June 2005.
She has now been taken back to court by Wales RART, and following our investigation, ordered to payback the cash she has made from her criminal dealings. Following the hearing, Jenkins appeared in a local newspaper article. In it she was quoted as saying, "My head was in the shed when they totalled it £232,000 over six years – you’d think I had a Rolls Royce or at least a holiday home but I haven’t"
"I never appreciated just how seriously the authorities take tax evasion."
"If I saw people doing the same now I’d tell them there’s a nightmare waiting round the corner and not to do it – it’s just not worth it."