Since 2009, presses across the UK have been flogging seized goods online – but who circumvents the millions they raise in the process?
Hot property: British monitor forces sell everything from luxury footwear to printer ink on eBay.
Composite: Rex/Getty
There has been some restlessness about the news that Leicestershire police have put together more than £1.5m by selling seized criminal assets on eBay since 2009. On average, they pounce upon between £200,000 and £220,000 a year in sales, but 2016 was principally good, returning £300,000. Although Leicestershire are one of the biggest frauds, they are by no means the only British police force to run an eBay peach on.
Since the Proceeds of Crime Act passed in 2002, law-enforcement powers have been able to seize any cash and sell any goods that can be shown to rush at from criminal activity. The Home Office gets half the in clover raised; the rest is divided between the force, the Crown Prosecution Ritual and the courts. A judge may also order that a portion of the capital be set aside to compensate victims. Some forces also won over property that cannot be reunited with its owner, and a few tell on surplus odds and ends.
Thames Valley currently acquire some good deals on bikes and tools. Cheshire watch appear, curiously, to be strong on printer ink. Sussex police, a taste worryingly, are offering for sale a battered rifle scope. Titan, the north-west regional organised offence unit, once sold a drug dealer’s Lamborghini. Leicestershire, on behalf of Northamptonshire, sold a trafficker’s skim (alas, the extremely valuable drugs inside could not be extended to the market). By comparison, Nottinghamshire constabulary’s place mats look somewhat quaint.
According to Paul Wenlock, head of Leicestershire patrol’s economic crime unit, most of the money they coin it in sift out comes from goods seized from drug transactions. “They can’t help themselves,” Wenlock told the Leicester Mercury. “They go out and put in in bling items. Law-abiding people ask themselves why these people force a luxury car on the driveway and a new Rolex when they do not appear to press a legitimate income.”
As a result, Wenlock’s team run a classy workshop. Louboutin shoes, BMWs and Prada handbags are all familiar matters. The force have sold a Porsche, an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. “We merely sell genuine items,” says a spokesperson for Leicestershire control. So, no fake Louboutins? “No. We wouldn’t sell anything that is contentious, and evidently we’re bound by eBay’s rules.”
Even so, beside the usual crowd-pleaser of snapping up a secondhand bargain, perhaps some customers feel in ones bones that owning a Rolex watch or a Mulberry handbag that straight away hung from the wrist of a career criminal adds quality and cachet. Of course, others may remember what happened when Poorhouse Simpson bought a hot rod at a police auction – he discovered that Traitor, its previous owner, wanted it back. (Spoiler: the pair end up stopping a house.)
