greenleaf
12-10-2007, 08:34 AM
On the main page the opening is 'Making Sure Crime Doesn't Pay' Typical of the greed of our UK government, the law freezing and taking assets from criminals is run in such a criminal way you begin to wonder if we should be hiring these criminally minded guys to run the country.
Assets Recovery Agency website (http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk/)
Crime assets recovery team slammed (http://news.aol.co.uk/crime-assets-recovery-team-slammed/article/20071011212009990003)
The Government's much-vaunted creation of an agency to seize criminals' illicit wealth has been condemned as "ill-planned" and "unrealistic" by a cross-party committee of MPs.
A National Audit Office report in February this year revealed that the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) spent £65 million over the first four years of its existence, but seized just £23 million.
The report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee criticised the Agency - set up by then Home Secretary David Blunkett - for concentrating its efforts on recovering the full value of criminals' illegal assets by court action, rather than negotiating settlements which left them with some of their ill-gotten gains.
A single case in which a settlement was negotiated accounted for more than half of the £23 million recovered by the Agency, and took just 15 months to complete, compared to the four-year average for cases pursued through the courts, said the report.
The ARA was created with much fanfare in 2003 and given powers to seize assets even from people who have not been convicted of any crime and claimed: "We are hitting organised criminals where it really hurts - in their pockets."
It will be disbanded from April 2008 and its duties transferred to the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
The report said that the Home Office set the ARA "unachievable delivery aims". Cases took twice as long to progress as anticipated, both because the Agency was required to establish legal precedents for its untried powers and as a result of poor case management processes.
Fewer than one-fifth of the 696 organisations which had the power to refer cases to the ARA ever did so, and the Agency took on only 707 cases in total over its first four years, said the report. Two police forces referred no cases.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "The Assets Recovery Agency has done a good job in testing through the courts new powers for recovering the proceeds of crime. The new Serious Organised Crime Agency will be able to use those powers in the future.
"But the Assets Recovery Agency has been successful in little else. It was ill-planned and recovered only about a third of its expenditure."
Assets Recovery Agency 'failing' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5077846.stm) BBC Version
The success of the agency has come into question
An agency set up to seize criminals' assets has cost taxpayers around £60m despite only recovering just over £8m from law breakers since 2003.
The Asset Recovery Agency was set up to tackle organised crime. It was meant to raise enough cash to cover its budget.
Tory Grant Shapps obtained figures from the Home Office showing in the ARA cost four times what it recovered in 2005.
Director Jane Earl said she was disappointed with the results but the ARA had made life harder for criminals.
"Our disruptive action where we have exceeded our targets is playing a big part in making the general landscape much more difficult for criminals to operate in," she said.
"We are disappointed that cases have not come to fruition as quickly as we had first hoped but we are clear that this is a long haul and we will continue to play a full part in recovering the proceeds of crime."
When the ARA was launched with the power to seize criminals cars and cash Tony Blair said the agency was going to hit big time crooks hard - "where it most hurts in their pockets".
In 2004 the agency recovered vehicles worth just £5,000 - that was despite a 50% increase in its staff.
The agency admits there are problems but argues cases are taking longer because they are working with new laws.
Downing Street said the agency had done a lot of good disruptive work but conceded the level of asset recover to date had been disappointing.
Currently the agency has succeeded in freezing £68.45m of criminals' assets but Mr Shapps says that is some distance from the goal of recovering the cash.
He said the attempts to finally seize criminals' assets were being fought in the courts, including using human rights legislation.
Mr Shapps added that by Mr Blair's own benchmark at the time of the launch the agency should have recovered £80m.
"The policy has been a failure and it is time the agency was made to work," he said.
Assets Recovery Agency website (http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk/)
Crime assets recovery team slammed (http://news.aol.co.uk/crime-assets-recovery-team-slammed/article/20071011212009990003)
The Government's much-vaunted creation of an agency to seize criminals' illicit wealth has been condemned as "ill-planned" and "unrealistic" by a cross-party committee of MPs.
A National Audit Office report in February this year revealed that the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) spent £65 million over the first four years of its existence, but seized just £23 million.
The report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee criticised the Agency - set up by then Home Secretary David Blunkett - for concentrating its efforts on recovering the full value of criminals' illegal assets by court action, rather than negotiating settlements which left them with some of their ill-gotten gains.
A single case in which a settlement was negotiated accounted for more than half of the £23 million recovered by the Agency, and took just 15 months to complete, compared to the four-year average for cases pursued through the courts, said the report.
The ARA was created with much fanfare in 2003 and given powers to seize assets even from people who have not been convicted of any crime and claimed: "We are hitting organised criminals where it really hurts - in their pockets."
It will be disbanded from April 2008 and its duties transferred to the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
The report said that the Home Office set the ARA "unachievable delivery aims". Cases took twice as long to progress as anticipated, both because the Agency was required to establish legal precedents for its untried powers and as a result of poor case management processes.
Fewer than one-fifth of the 696 organisations which had the power to refer cases to the ARA ever did so, and the Agency took on only 707 cases in total over its first four years, said the report. Two police forces referred no cases.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "The Assets Recovery Agency has done a good job in testing through the courts new powers for recovering the proceeds of crime. The new Serious Organised Crime Agency will be able to use those powers in the future.
"But the Assets Recovery Agency has been successful in little else. It was ill-planned and recovered only about a third of its expenditure."
Assets Recovery Agency 'failing' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5077846.stm) BBC Version
The success of the agency has come into question
An agency set up to seize criminals' assets has cost taxpayers around £60m despite only recovering just over £8m from law breakers since 2003.
The Asset Recovery Agency was set up to tackle organised crime. It was meant to raise enough cash to cover its budget.
Tory Grant Shapps obtained figures from the Home Office showing in the ARA cost four times what it recovered in 2005.
Director Jane Earl said she was disappointed with the results but the ARA had made life harder for criminals.
"Our disruptive action where we have exceeded our targets is playing a big part in making the general landscape much more difficult for criminals to operate in," she said.
"We are disappointed that cases have not come to fruition as quickly as we had first hoped but we are clear that this is a long haul and we will continue to play a full part in recovering the proceeds of crime."
When the ARA was launched with the power to seize criminals cars and cash Tony Blair said the agency was going to hit big time crooks hard - "where it most hurts in their pockets".
In 2004 the agency recovered vehicles worth just £5,000 - that was despite a 50% increase in its staff.
The agency admits there are problems but argues cases are taking longer because they are working with new laws.
Downing Street said the agency had done a lot of good disruptive work but conceded the level of asset recover to date had been disappointing.
Currently the agency has succeeded in freezing £68.45m of criminals' assets but Mr Shapps says that is some distance from the goal of recovering the cash.
He said the attempts to finally seize criminals' assets were being fought in the courts, including using human rights legislation.
Mr Shapps added that by Mr Blair's own benchmark at the time of the launch the agency should have recovered £80m.
"The policy has been a failure and it is time the agency was made to work," he said.