£94m of criminals’ cash seized by police

SCOTLAND Yard seized a record £ 94.6million of criminals’ money last year, an increase of 40 per cent in 12 months.

The boost was partly fuelled by a rise in the use of confiscation orders after convictions. These went up from £20.9million in 2016/17 to £55.5million in 2017/18.

A key case involved four of the men convicted over the Hatton Garden jewellery heist being ordered to pay back more than £6million or face another seven years in prison.

Money seized by the Metropolitan Police is paid to the Home Office, which returns a percentage to the force. It amounted to £9.55million last year.