Criminals' Assets Sold on eBay

An account has been opened on the internet auction site eBay by Cheshire Police to sell off criminals' assets.

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, offenders can be deprived of any financial benefit of their crimes.

They can be ordered to sell off assets in order to repay the money they have made.

The cash raised from the eBay auctions will go to the Home Office. Cheshire Police will receive a share of the profits, a spokesman said.

Det Sgt Karen Jaundrill, of Cheshire Police's Financial Investigation Unit, said: "By selling items in this way, we hope to generate a bigger income from criminal assets, which in turn will benefit victims of crime and be reinvested in local policing initiatives."

A television, DVD player, games console, vacuum cleaner and MP3 player, have been put up for auction.

Linford On The Wrong Track.

Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie has been found guilty of careless driving after he crashed his car while driving on the wrong side of the road.

Christie, 51, of Twickenham, south-west London, was cleared of the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

Aylesbury Crown Court heard Christie had crashed head-on with a taxi carrying two newlyweds on the A413 in Buckinghamshire on 8 May 2010.

The former sprinter was disqualified from driving for 15 months.

He was also fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 prosecution costs.

M23law regularly defends in these cases. Please bear in mind that the standard in careless driving is very low and easy for the prosecution to prove. 'Momentary inattention' is often sufficient.

Kids in Handcuffs

The Howard League for Penal Reform has discovered that about a quater of a million children under the age of 18 have been arrested every year since 2007.


Most shocking is that the number of kids aged between 10 and 13 years arrested was 37,187 in 2007.

The statistics are an underestimate as four police forces failed to provide the material.

M23law has a specially trained advisor to represent these young suspects.

Violent Crime: Perception, Stats and Reality.

Violent crime has apparently gone down by half in the last 14 years and yet, in surveys. most people believe it has gone up each year.
The murder rate is 1.3 per 100,000 people per year in Britain, 5 in the USA, 13 in Russia and at it's peak in El Salvador at 75!
Are the Tabloids and media generally to blame for this perception of violence around very corner, with headline grabbing stories? How many crimes go unreported? We all have anecdotal accounts of contacts who can't be bothered to report a crime, for whatever reason.
Perhaps policing has actually improved or imprisonment does act as a deterrent.
What will be the effect of a lingering, miserable recession on violent and acquisitive dishonesty crime statistics? Our court capacity is shrinking and police custody suites less busy.This may be due to demoralised police officers not arresting as many people and certainly not now there is precious little overtime. Also due to diversionary projects and officers' increasing discretion.
Do we reckon there is less crime and feel safer on our streets? Perception and recorded stats.
Discuss!

Demise of News Of The World.

Having had experience of clients facing exposure to the "Investigation" and attendant publication in the News Of The World, I am not too despondent at the demise of this title.See ECHR Shannon 2001 as an example of the fake sheikh variety.There will no doubt be other newspapers that have been indulging in these dark practices.
As one who has had a vast experience of representing clients in police stations, I am not surprised that officers have apparently been receiving income from the media. Bear in mind also that most private investigators are ex-officers who often rely on their former contacts.I am actually surprised that these issues have not surfaced years earlier. I am sceptical as to the outcome of a Met Police investigation into this murky area. Long grass and Public Inquiry ditto.