Meet the Economic Crime Unit teams who have collectively forfeited £15 million of criminal finances last tax year

GMP’s Economic Crime Unit consists of police officers, detectives and support staff who deal with investigations that are complex with serious fraud, money laundering and confiscating the proceeds of crime in Greater Manchester.

The unit is made up of a number of specialist teams each with police officers and staff targeting different areas of criminal finances to ensure that all their funds are removed.

Detective Sergeant Peter Goddard - Money Laundering Team

Pete leads a team of detectives in the Money Laundering Team since 2023 and before this he worked as a detective in Tameside.

His team is responsible for conducting warrants, arresting suspects, and seizing high value items and cash from their properties and the team’s primary responsibility is to arrest those responsible for Money Laundering across Greater Manchester.

GMP are one of a few police forces in the country to have a dedicated, proactive money laundering team within an Economic Crime Unit.

Detective Sergeant Ben Miller  - Account Freezing Order Team

Ben has worked in GMP’s Economic Crime Unit since 2015, and before this he worked as a Detective in Oldham.

Ben’s team responsibility lies with targeting criminal’s bank accounts. This tax year his team have recovered over £4million, with a proportion being spent on community initiatives and policing operations in Greater Manchester through the asset recovery initiative scheme.

The team were the first team in the country to use forfeiture legislation to tackle criminal bank accounts.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Langley – Asset Detention and Recovery Unit

 Sarah is an investigator in GMP’s Asset Detention and Restraint Unit, her team are responsible for investigating the assets and cash that was seized at warrants and looking into where the money came from and its intended use before creating a case file for court so the team can recover the finances.

Sarah has worked in the Economic Crime Unit for 12 years across several teams, having previously worked on the Rochdale District.

Her team work on the balance of probability, and they only have to prove that it is more likely than not that the money seized has come from or if intended for use in crime.

If Sarah and her team determine this, they make sure whoever it was taken from, doesn't get it back.

Lisa Ward  - Constraints and Confiscation Supervisor

Lisa has worked in the Economic Crime Unit for several years having previously worked as a retail manager.

Lisa is GMP staff, she oversees a team the team of civilian financial investigators.

The team primarily targets assets owned or controlled by criminals.

This tax year they have seized over £3 million worth of assets. In addition to property they will also seize high value assets including clothing, jewellery and cars.

She has worked on the Payback Support Desk as a researcher, became a qualified Financial Investigators and now supervises 12 other Financial Investigators in the team.

Detective Inspector Jill Billington – Prevention team

Jill oversees a number of police officers, staff and volunteers who work hard to prevent people from becoming victims of fraud.

Jill was a detective in GMP’s prior Major Incident Team before joining the Economic Crime Unit.

Fraud -fighting volunteers within GMP’s Economic Crime Unit have held 145 prevention events in the last 12 months to help people stay safe from fraud and the volunteers are trained to advise on the latest type of fraud to educate the public on what to do to prevent people from becoming a victim, and to also provide guidance and contact details on how to report a fraud once it has happened.

DCI Roger Smethurst – Senior Investigating Officer in the Economic Crime Unit

Roger currently oversees three teams within the Economic Crime Unit, our Money Laundering Team, Account Freezing Order Team and the Asset Detention and Recovery Unit.

He previously worked in GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group before moving to the Economic Crime Unit in November 2023.

The teams he oversees look at a mix of proactive and reactive investigations, targeting organised criminals and fraud, and conduct a lot of surveillance work to catch them in the act, particularly when it comes to money laundering, and the execution of warrants across Greater Manchester.

Detective Superintendent Paul Copplestone – leads the Economic Crime Unit

Paul has been in GMP for 26 years. Before joining the Economic Crime Unit in March 2023, he was a detective working at Trafford.

Paul joined GMP in 1997 and has had a varied career. He has been a detective through all ranks and has worked within the CID at North Manchester, Salford and Trafford.

Paul has worked on complex CSE investigations and has had a number of roles within Public Protection.  

He leads all of the teams within the unit, and oversees their activity.

Collectively, the unit has broken records within GMP, as £15 million has been recovered in the last tax year. This puts the force as one of the best performing economic crime units in the country. This money is then used to benefit local community initiatives and policing operations to prevent, tackle and reduce crime across Greater Manchester through the Asset Recovery Initiative Scheme.