Tayside gangs forced to hand back their ill-gotten gains
Crime lords pay price as millions are seized
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Millions of pounds of assets and cash have been stripped from some of the most dangerous crime barons in Tayside, the north and north-east, it has emerged.
Cars, houses and business premises have all been seized by police probing the lavish lifestyles of wealthy underworld figures using the Proceeds of Crime Act.
A fishing boat, a racehorse and even a collection of soft toys are among the near-£3million haul from gangs operating in the Grampian, Highland and Tayside regions.
Since 2003, £1,225,967 of cash and assets has been seized from crime lords in Grampian, including almost £500,000 in 2005-06 alone
Over the same period, Northern Constabulary clawed back £1,195,772.17 and Tayside officers recovered £590,967.67.
As well as money, pensions, investment plans, shares and weapons such as rifles and shotguns have all been seized. Police have also claimed a caravan, antiques and a collection of whiskies.
Among those targeted in the north-east were two drug-dealing brothers who sold thousands of pounds’ worth of heroin a day.
Anthony and Lee Higgins moved from Liverpool to Aberdeen to run an operation trafficking large quantities of the class A drug.
But at the High Court in Edinburgh last year, they were ordered to pay back £12,000 from their criminal empire.
In 2008 so far, Grampian Police have identified £1.5million worth of cash and assets to be seized.
However, for the whole of last year, the courts granted confiscation orders for just £4,000 in the area, fuelling fears that criminals are becoming more successful at hiding the huge amounts of cash they rake in from their illegitimate empires.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Bill Aitken said it was not acceptable that criminals who earned millions of pounds could leave jail and live off their wealth.
He said: “We have to recognise that not only are they wise to the workings of the current act but they are also able to afford the best of advice from sometimes unscrupulous lawyers and accountants.
“My own personal view is that these people should be left literally with what they stand up in, as they are peddling in human misery and cost innumerable lives in Scotland. We need to be in a position where anyone who has a significant sum of money has to be able to demonstrate that this has been obtained legitimately.
“I am not critical of the individual police forces or the Crown but perhaps we need to beef up the existing law to give them greater support.”
Earlier this year, the Crown Office revealed that it had snatched back £5.5million from criminals in the past year using proceeds-of-crime legislation. Since 2003, it has issued confiscation orders for more than £21million worth of cash and assets.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said the government plans to strengthen the Proceeds of Crime Act.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill would include proposals to make criminals who are likely to repeat a fraud or money-laundering offence provide details of their financial transactions.
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