Home Office to unveil fresh powers to track down organised crime associates

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/03/theresa-may-fresh-powers-organised-crime-associates

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The home secretary, Theresa May, is to announce fresh powers to track down and jail hundreds of corrupt solicitors, accountants and other associates of organised crime gangs for up to five years in legislation similar to a US-style anti-mafia law.

The new serious crime bill, which will also include tougher powers to seize the criminal assets of convicted organised crime bosses, will form a key element in the Queen's speech on Wednesday which details the last year of the government's legislative programme.

The Home Office says the bill will create a new offence of "participation in an organised crime group" to ensure that police and prosecutors can take firm action against the white-collar associates of the gangs involved in Britain's £24bn a year organised crime industry.

"Organised crime groups use a range of associates, both professional and non-professional, to help them in their illegal activity, for example by writing contracts, renting warehouse space or delivering packages," said a Home Office spokesman. "But these associates can currently adopt a 'no questions asked' approach and then can claim in court they were unaware of the precise nature of the criminality they were involved in."

The Home Office says the measure will also target the so-called 'Mr Bigs', who plan, co-ordinate and manage criminal networks but are careful not to get their hands dirty in order to avoid prosecution.

Those convicted of the new offence will face up to five years' imprisonment and a new Asbo-style civil order restricting their travel and who they associate with, to deter them from returning to a life of crime.

It is expected that between 100 to 200 'enablers', including lawyers and accountants, who are not currently caught by conspiracy laws, would be jailed each year under the new offence.

Prosecutors will have to prove that defendants had "reasonable grounds to suspect they were helping a crime group to carry out their activities". The Home Office cited the example of a man who hires a van to be used by a group of drug smugglers and who meets the group on the same day but says he never asked why they wanted the van.

A furher 1,000 offenders linked to organised crime are expected to face longer sentences under plans to allow the courts to count association with organised crime groups as an aggravating factor in sentencing.

Home Office minister Karen Bradley, said: "Nobody is above the law. But for too long corrupt lawyers, accountants and other professionals have tried to evade justice by hiding behind a veneer of respectability. This new offence sends out a clear message to those individuals: if you are helping to oil the wheels of organised crime, you will be prosecuted and face being jailed."

The tougher penalties for organised criminals who fail to pay orders confiscating their criminal assets include longer sentences, ending their rights to an automatic early release, and overseas travel bans. Those who face confiscation orders of between £500,000 and £1m could see the default sentence for failing to pay rise from five to seven years, while it will rise from 10 years to 14 for those who are ordered to hand over assets of more than £1m.

The move follows a highly critical report from MPs on the Commons public accounts committee which said the current system was a shambles with criminals choosing to spend extra time in jail rather than pay up.

There are at least 14 cases where criminals have failed to co-operate in repaying orders worth more than £10m each. In the most notorious case, a dotcom fraudster Gerald Smith has the single biggest outstanding unpaid order at £57,238,256 including interest at 8% a year.