Dirty cash turned to clean living

Monday, May 10, 2010

Community projects are to get a financial boost following the increase of "dirty cash" that can be retained by Scottish ministers under criminal legislation.

HM Treasury has announced that the Scottish government can now keep up to £30m annually in recovered cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) – an increase of £13m.

Money recovered under the act is invested in the Cashback for Communities programme aimed at alleviating the effects of crime, while excess monies go directly to the treasury.

Already more than £14m of recovered cash has been invested in projects for young people across Scotland.

Currently the Scottish retention figure is based on 10 per cent of what the Home Office are allowed to keep before its proceeds are surrendered to treasury. Recently the Home Office increased its retention amount from £170m to £300m.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "I am delighted that the Treasury has agreed to increase the current threshold. The Scottish government's view is that there should not be any threshold - but this move represents a victory for decent hard-working Scots.

"We are committed to maximising the benefits of the proceeds of crime act. It will greatly disrupt and help us beat the scourge of organised crime - while at the same time turning round the lives of many young people in Scotland."

The news comes as the crown office seized £6.5m from a Moscow-based businessman through the legislation – the biggest ever haul from a single case in Scotland.

The cash was recovered from Anatoly Kazachkov, through joint working between the civil recovery unit and the Scottish crime and drug enforcement agency, after a suspicious bank transfer of $10m from an account in Hungary to a Scottish bank in 2004.

Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini said: "Financial crime undermines legitimate hard-working businesses and threatens the future stability of our economic growth. The dedicated specialists in our Civil Recovery Unit will continue to use the POCA legislation to ensure that unlawfully obtained assets are recovered and the proceeds used directly to benefit our communities across Scotland.

"Just as important as the recovery of the funds is the disruption that the POCA legislation allows us to cause to those who would seek to profit from organised crime."