Account Freezing Order Team seize over £40m from criminal’s bank accounts

Greater Manchester Police's Account Freezing Order Team has seize over £40 million from criminal’s bank accounts since the team’s creation.

The team of 12, led by Detective Sergeant Ben Miller and Detective Sergeant Daniel Pickup, sits as part of GMP's Economic Crime Unit and since May 2018 the unit has gone from strength to strength.

Greater Manchester Police was one of the first police forces in the UK to apply a new law after changes to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was revised to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2017, which gives law enforcement the ability to freeze and seize funds in criminal bank accounts, and on May 15, 2018, officers successfully seized criminal funds from an account for the first time to the amount of £13,651.37.

Officers in the unit quickly recognised the potential to disrupt organised criminals through targeting their finances, and a number of officers were allocated to conduct this work.

Since 2018, officers in the team have forfeited £21,332,997.52 depriving criminals of their money.

The money is then sent to the Home Office and a portion is returned back to GMP through the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme and used to prevent, tackle and reduce crime in communities across Manchester by supporting local projects and charities such as youth groups across the region.

In addition, the Account Freezing Order Team have also intercepted £20,142,276.31 of funds that were fraudulently obtained or stolen by criminals and then returned the money to the victims and rightful owners.

In 2022, the team forfeited £528,000 from an account of an individual who was importing illegal unregulated pharmaceuticals into the country and selling them for a large profit exposing the public to the dangers of unregulated medicine.

In 2023, £455,159.48 was intercepted by the team.

The suspect in this case was sending illegal funds from foreign fraudsters to the UK to invest in new criminal enterprises.

The finances were seized in the criminals account and the subsequent investigation by the team proved the money was from criminality and a court ordered the forfeiture of the funds.

In January 2024, the Account Freezing Order team intercepted £243,453.58 from a business account.

The money had been sent by a European Business who believed they were investing in a legitimate UK company.

They were tricked into sending the money to the wrong account.

The money was recovered by the team and returned to rightful owner who has since invested the money into the UK economy successfully creating new jobs and opportunities for the people of Greater Manchester.

Detective Sergeant Miller said: “As a team we have been successful in this field and we've extended our expertise to other police forces and public bodies, helping them set up units similar to ours to make the UK less welcoming to criminals who wish to hide their ill-gotten gains in bank accounts.

"Originally, our staff were part of the Money Laundering Team and Asset Detention and Recovery Unit, but in 2017 legislation changed that allowed us to freeze money in accounts under civil law as opposed to criminal law and we formed the AFO Team to ensure we could specialise and proactively seize criminal money wherever it is.

"The Account Freezing Order Team, along with our Asset Detention and Recovery Unit and the Confiscation and Restraint Unit, will continue to work together to hunt for, recover and keep criminal assets in order for this to be reinvested into our community and ensure Greater Manchester is a safer place to live.

"We were amongst the first Police forces in the UK to use this new legislation successfully in 2018 when we recovered just over £600,000 - this caused largescale disruption to criminal groups and following that initial success, a plan was put in place to form a specialist team that was robust and dedicated to seizing finances from bank accounts which has led to the forfeiture of over £20,000,000 from criminals and over £20,000,000 returned to victims of crime. 

"We will continue to identify, track and seize criminal money held in bank accounts, restricting and ultimately denying criminals' access to that money and returning funds to victims of crime."

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