he Standard exposes the scandal of convicted criminals who are defying court orders to give back a total of £584 million — many of them by simply refusing to pay a penny.
The Standard exposes the scandal of convicted criminals who are defying court orders to give back a total of £584 million — many of them by simply refusing to pay a penny.
Our two-year battle to obtain information reveals gangland Mr Bigs, drugs dealers and fraudsters who bought houses, cars and jewellery with the profits of their crimes.
Almost 170 of Britain’s most serious criminals have missed deadlines imposed by judges to repay the cash despite government promises to get tough with confiscation orders.
The Director of Public Prosecutions today praised the Standard’s campaign, saying he had “put into the public domain more information than has ever been disclosed about the enforcement of confiscation orders”. Keir Starmer added: “My decision was prompted by probing questions posed by the Evening Standard.”
The Crown Prosecution Service, which together with HM Court Service is responsible for enforcing payment, had argued that legislation barred it from disclosing the information.
Among those snubbing court orders to hand back cash are:
Two VAT fraudsters with homes in Knightsbridge, Dubai and Battersea. Both owe more than £16 million.
London crack baron whose debt to taxpayers stands at £4.4 million.
Playboy arrested in bed with his mistress in a Park Lane hotel. He owes £9.5 million in tax.
Heathrow drug trafficker who has failed to return nearly £10.5 million.
A London conman who sold “bargain break” holidays that did not exist in a £6 million scam. He has still to repay more than £3 million.
The total owed is enough to build scores of primary schools or 30 new secondaries.
Max Hill, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said the figures showed that ministers’ rhetoric about punishing the “Mr Bigs” was not matched by results, adding: “It is facile of the Government to say that they are going to recover the money. There are enormous sums that are never going to be paid back and these figures prove it.” Unveiling the details today, Mr Starmer said that prosecutors were determined to recover illicit profits, but warned that major criminals were often skilled at evading repayment.
He said: “We are determined to enforce these orders and do everything in our power to do so,” he said. “But the bigger orders generally relate to more sophisticated crimes with a high degree of organisation and that increases the likelihood that the assets are going to be hidden. Finding those assets is not easy and enforcing overseas presents particular challenges.”
Today’s figures show that 191 criminals have been handed court orders requiring them to pay back more than £1 million. Of these, only 25 have paid in full. Another 23 still have time to pay before the deadline imposed by the court expires. The remaining 143 have all failed to pay.
Only £133,494,304 has been handed back. Of the offenders whose deadline for repayment has passed, some have not handed over a penny voluntarily. Others have reduced their debts only because their assets have been seized and sold by court appointed receivers after prolonged court battles which have further added to the drain on taxpayers.
Today’s revelations follow a report by HM Court Service in which officials warned that major criminals given confiscation orders were becoming “increasingly astute” at hiding their illicit gains.
The report said that £228million that criminals were meant to be paying back was now “unlikely to be collected” — 14 per cent up on the previous year.
It added that another £744million was overdue by at least three years and had been deemed “inactive” because of the diminishing likelihood that it would every be repaid. That total is £291 million higher than 12 months earlier and equates to a 64 per cent increase.
