GMP’s Asset Detention and Recovery Unit forfeit over £680k this month

January 2024 has been one of the best months on record for the Asset Detention and Recovery Unit in GMP’s Economic Crime Unit who have taken 84 cases of seized cash and listed asset seizures from across the force to court to be legally detained under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The Asset Detention and Recovery Unit, who sit within the Economic Crime Unit, is made up of both detectives and accredited financial investigators and this week, during the Economic Crime week of action across the force, the ADRU have forfeited a total of £306,166.04 which includes 13 successful orders being granted this week at Tameside Magistrates Court made up of cash and listed assets.

The total amount now forfeited in this financial year by the team is £3,497,180.32, made up of 358 successful forfeiture orders.

This can be broken down into £3,297,580.32 in cash and £199,600.00 of listed assets such as high value watches and jewellery.

Over the past few years officers have seen cash hidden and concealed in a variety of places such as ovens, cooker hoods, freezers and even in a child’s changing bag.

This week was no different and officers have seized bundles of cash hidden in a microwave and watched cash being thrown out of a bedroom window of an address in Rochdale during a warrant.

The money has been seized from a number of policing activity force wide, for example in October 2023, officers observed a man and woman on City Road East in Manchester city centre outside an apartment block handing over bags of cash to occupants in a parked vehicle. Three men aged between 21 and 35 and a woman, aged 27, were arrested on suspicion of Money Laundering and house searches were conducted.

Within the vehicle over £100k in cash was seized and house searches were conducted where a cash counting machine was found alongside two further bundles of cash to the value of £57,039.78 and £20,165.

In Bolton, £12,320.00 was seized following a drugs warrant which was conducted in Little Lever where a significant quantity of suspected class A drugs were located and seized along with £12,320 in cash along with scales and mobile phones. A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of drug offences and later pleaded guilty in November to possession with intent to supply class A drugs and was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment earlier this month.

Officers have shown how they count the cash that is seized, before it is taken to court, to ensure they have the correct amount recorded. The money is counted three times, it is first weighed and then put into an electronic money counting machine before being counted by hand.

When money is seized from an address or vehicle or even on a person, it is then sealed in an evidence bag before being transported where the officers can count the cash safely.

The cash counted in the video relates to a seizure of cash after the arrest of a 51-year-old man who was arrested in connection with stalking in Audenshaw. Following the arrest, officers found a card machine which was suspected to be stolen and a number of suspected counterfeit items.

A designer shoebox was located with a significant amount of cash in suspected to be the proceeds of crime. He was arrested on suspicion of Money Laundering. The cash was counted yesterday to a value of £17,000.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Langley of GMP’s Asset Detention and Recovery Unit, in our Economic Crime Unit, said: “This month has been our best ever recorded for cash seizures made by officers right across the force. The number of forfeitures made this month alone is a credit to the officers and staff in the unit, who spend countless hours pulling cases together so we are in a position to take them to court.

“We use a variety of powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act which enables us to successfully forfeit the cash and assets that has been seized.

“My team work on a balance of probability basis – through our financial investigations we will assess whether it more likely than not that this money has come from the product of crime and if the answer is yes, we will take the case to court to prove this and ask for the money to be legally forfeited through the Proceeds of Crime Act.

"This enables GMP to recover the money and give back to communities through the Home Office’s Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) where a proportion of the money is returned to GMP to fund community projects that help GMP’s objectives to fight, prevent and reduce crime and make Greater Manchester a safer place to live, work and visit.”