Guernsey Press

Confiscating criminals' assets will be the focus of new team

A £2M. INVESTMENT will launch a dedicated Guernsey law enforcement team

Published

focused on confiscating the assets of criminals, it was announced at an international conference yesterday.

HM Procureur Howard Roberts, in his role as HM Receiver-General, said the amount had been made available from Guernsey's seized asset fund, which is money seized from criminals and then reinvested.

He announced details of the new team, which will fall within the financial investigation unit, as Guernsey hosted international experts from around the world at the Camden Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (Carin) annual general meeting.

'Our seized asset fund will make available some £2m. to establish a multi-disciplinary international help prevention and asset recovery team of law enforcement and lawyers to undertake proactive, as opposed to reactive, asset recovery measures,' he said, adding that it should be seen as an investment.

'It is envisaged that the team will not only recoup its set-up costs, but become self-financing and that any sums recovered, which were surplus to its operating cost and which are not repatriated to victims or in accordance with international obligations, will be applied for seized asset fund purposes which I have outlined.'

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.