CPS is unable to find criminals’ ‘missing millions’
SCORES of criminals are escaping having to pay back hundreds of millions of pounds in ill-gotten gains.
People traffickers, drug smugglers and fraudsters are among those who have not handed over criminal proceeds despite being jailed for their crimes.
Many high-profile convicted crooks escaped confiscation order demands on the basis that Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) officials could not find assets to confiscate.
People smugglertuananh Do was said to have earned £1million a year by trafficking migrants to work on cannabis farms.
He was jailed in March for 11 years, but CPS officials have confirmed they could not find any of the 55-year-old’s assets.
Similarly, Grenfell fraudster Joyce Msokeri, 50, who falsely alleged she had lost her home and husband in the 2017 fire, and went on to claim handbags, dresses, accommodation and cash handouts worth a total of £19,000. She has not paid back a penny of what she stole as CPS officials say they cannot find any evidence of assets.
Chilean “burglary tourists” Danko Carvajal-donaire, 21, and Jorge Rojas, 23, netted £33,000 from a raid on thewimbledon home of celebrity chef Marcus Wareing.
The pair were also deemed to have no assets to seize.
Lotto conman Edward Putman, 57, was jailed in 2019 after he was found guilty of fraud, having claimed an outstanding jackpot of £2.5million with a fake ticket in 2009.
Two years on, CPS chiefs are still in the process of bringing a confiscation order against Putman, whose defence was funded by £53,000 in legal aid.
Tommy Adams was originally locked up in 2017 for a string of money laundering offences.
He is due back in court next month and faces a further seven years behind bars if he fails to pay back £1.2million.
He was supposed to pay the cash back within three months of a court hearing in February last year or face the extra jail time.
Prosecutors had shown in confiscation proceedings how he had used the money to buy properties and a £32,000 car for his daughter.
David Spencer of the Centre for Crime Prevention said: “It is scandalous that these convicted criminals are not being pursued for the profits they made from their crimes.
“This isn’t something that should require complex paperwork and hours of bureaucratic wrangling. It should be something that comes automatically with a conviction.
“It is quite simple.when you are convicted of a crime, you should forfeit all profits from that crime and if the cash isn’t available you should be stripped of assets to the value or forced to make repayments once your sentence is completed.
“If there is proof that money has been passed to others, it should be taken from them.
“No-one should profit from their crimes.”
A CPS spokesman, said: “The CPS adopts a robust, targeted approach to recovering the proceeds of crime, depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains and seeking compensation for victims where possible.
“Over £100million in criminal assets was recovered in respect of CPS prosecutions for 2019/20.”