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Profiting from crime.

Professionals who work for organised criminals will face five-year jail terms under a crackdown on those who profit from crime.

With over £1.5 Billion outstanding in unpaid confiscation orders the Home Office is set to clamp down on professionals profiting from crime.

In a new move the Home Office has unveiled plans to target professionals such as Lawyers and Accountants who profit from crime.

The new plans include measures to recover more of the money made through criminal activity, and possible custodial sentencing for professionals choosing to turn a blind eye.

Of the £1.5 billion outstanding, the reality is that many of it will never be recovered with £100's of millions being written off.

It has been shown that only 0.25% of money made through crime was recovered last year, and many criminals have chosen increased jail sentencing rather than give up the proceeds of their crime: the new measures should close many of the so called 'legal loopholes' that allow criminals to hide their assets overseas.

Reports also show that too much hesitancy is being shown to try to recover the profits made from crime: almost 700,000 convictions were made in 2012-13 from which only 7,000 confiscation orders were made, with statistics suggesting that those criminals that have profited the most are likely to
pay the least. The recovery rate for orders under £1000 is 90%, whilst it shows a recovery rate of 18% on orders over £1 million.

In a cruel twist it was shown that the government spends around £70 to recover every £100.

This is both absurd and unacceptable, not enough confiscation orders are being made, and if they are, not enough is being done to enforce them.

The headlines will be written about the clampdown on professionals trying to evade justice, but we suspect the devil, in these changes, are in its detail, with the reforms proposed to close loopholes and the ability to size criminal assets more quickly.

Will the new measures help? Maybe, but it is at least a step to improve a very ineffective system. The new offence, 'participation in an organised crime group' and the greater powers given to the Home Office will become Law as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

Profiting from crime.
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