Account Freezing order team secure over £1 million from freezing criminals' bank accounts

Following a successful forfeiture order at Greater Manchester Magistrates Court to the value of £300,000, the Account Freezing Order Team have seized over £1 million from criminals since April. Officers in the team work to seize money from the accounts of organised criminal gangs who are trying to hide and launder their illicit gains through companies and individual accounts.

Detective Sergeant Ben Miller of GMP’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “It’s so important that we continue to target criminal’s finances to ensure crime doesn’t pay in Greater Manchester. We work to identify, track and seize any money we think has come from criminality.

“Some of our investigations take months or even years for us to reach a point where we can take the case to court. We are working diligently in the background to dismantle criminal networks by targeting their finances and ensuring that they cannot profit from their crimes.”

If officers suspect a bank account is being used to harbour illicit money derived from criminality, they will freeze it. In the past couple of months officers have seen a fake takeaway business in Rochdale, which was being used to launder money that was the profit of drug dealing. This was done by creating fake food orders. Officers also investigated an online business masquerading as a vape store which was suspected of laundering profits from the sale of illegal drugs.

A fake business was set up purely to receive the proceeds of crime money concealed as a Kitchen Design company, however, when this company was investigated it was found to be non-existent. The funds in the account formed part of a chain of accounts set up by organised criminals to hide their ill-gotten gains.

In these cases, money in the bank accounts attributed to the businesses were frozen under the Proceeds of Crime Act which gives us the power to stop them from profiting from their ill-gotten gains.

Detective Sergeant Ben Miller

Detective Sergeant Ben Miller, continued: “One of the best things about working in economic crime is knowing that the funds we recover will be invested into good causes to help the people of Greater Manchester.

“It doesn’t matter where criminals try to launder their money, we have a number of specialist teams in the unit, that will find it, seize it and recover it to ensure they aren’t able to live a lavish lifestyle at the detriment of others.

“Through hard work and dedication from the Account Freezing Order team and the other members in the wider Economic Crime Unit, we are continuing to move in the right direction, recovering more and more money to give back to the communities of Greater Manchester.”

Detective Inspector Sarah Langley who oversees the activity of the team said: “It is important we carry on working hard to part criminals with their money as most often this money is used to fund more serious and organised violence.

"Seizing such a huge amount of money from them will have a large impact on those communities where the effect serious and organised violence blights the lives of local people.

“The money seized is more than often linked to drugs and gang related activity, so removing the funds available to these gangs' will stop them from engaging in further crime and will also disrupt their criminal networks.”

Anyone with concerns or information about suspicious financial activity, should report to police online, if able, at www.gmp.police.uk or via 101. Always call 999 in an emergency.

Details can be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.