IslingtonTribune - News: Long arm of lae eizes £10,000 left in street

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 4 April 2008

Long arm of law seizes £10,000 left in street

A POLICE officer couldn’t believe his eyes when he bent down to pick up an envelope on a Holloway street – to find it stuffed with thousands of pounds of banknotes.
The mystery deepened when a man claimed he had thrown the £10,000 wad out of his first-floor window to stop thieves stealing the cash.
But police, suspicious about how the money had been obtained, took action to confiscate it under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
This week they heard officially that the Met can keep the cash, which will be shared with the Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service. A document wallet full of the cash was found in the street when Islington police were called to a disturbance in Hornsey Road in October last year.
A 29-year-old man claimed he had earned the money through “cash-in-hand” building work, and that it was the only money he had. But further investigations found he had another £10,000 in a building society account. Three weeks later the man, who claimed he spent up to £100 a week on drugs, cleared his bank account. This week an Islington police spokeswoman said: “No evidence has been received from the man proving the legitimacy of the cash or its ownership.”
Islington police financial investigator Jamie Gregory warned: “The Proceeds of Crime Act is one of many tools we are using to come down hard on offenders. I hope this sends out a warning: if we find you with large sums of cash and you cannot account for it, we will hit you where it really hurts – in your wallet.”

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