Morning:
8°c
With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun
Latest: Gordon Brown apologises for his poor handwriting and for misspelling the name of a dead soldier in a letter to the young man’s mother
More...
Public could get cash rewards for grassing on tax-dodging neighbours
Last updated at 17:22pm on 24.05.07Members of the public could be handed huge cash rewards for grassing on people or companies defrauding the Government, under proposals published by the Home Office today.
Informants would win a share of assets confiscated by the courts if they turned whistleblower against a fraudster such as someone cheating on benefits, a cigarette smuggler or a company dodging VAT.
Scroll down for more
Members of the public could be handed huge cash rewards for grassing on people or companies defrauding the Government
The system would be based on what the Home Office describes as a "strikingly successful" scheme in the United States which has seized 11 billion dollars (£5.5 billion) since 1986.
In the US, informants receive between 15 per cent and 30 per cent of seized assets in a successful case.
The proposal was floated by ministers as part of a wide-ranging action plan to improve the way the Government seizes criminal assets.
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "It seems to have been successful in the US.
"We are asking is it applicable in this country, is it something that people would find acceptable and is there a workable model?
"We think it would be irresponsible for us as a Government not to look at what people are doing overseas."
In the US, the system under the False Claims Act is known as "Qui Tam", which allows anyone who becomes aware of a fraud - even one committed in the past - to launch a legal claim on the Government's behalf.
It dates back to 1790 but since amendments were made to the legislation in 1986, there have been more than 5,000 actions in which whistleblowers have received almost 1.8 billion dollars (£900 million) in cash awards.
Scroll down for more
A Home Office consultation paper said today: "It has been estimated that for every dollar the federal government invests in investigating and prosecuting these cases, it receives 15 dollars back.
"The US Department of Justice believes that the False Claims Act and Qui Tam is an unarguable success.
"These provisions have been strikingly successful, particularly in defence and healthcare sectors, with many billions of dollars raised annually."
However, the document recognised that it would be a "novel" principle to bring to England and Wales.
The consultation paper, which is open for feedback until November 23, also suggested a range of new measures to improve criminal confiscations, including new powers to seize "bling" such as jewellery and plasma TVs from criminals charged with acquisitive crimes.
It suggested that changing the law so that police and other law enforcement agencies could seize high-value goods as soon as a suspect is charged, so the items could then be held pending a trial and eventually sold.
It said: "We would need to provide guidance to ensure that only non-essential goods could be seized, and individuals would be able to redeem the goods by putting an equivalent bond in place.
"There would also need to be provision for compensation in cases where the charged person is not ultimately convicted of an offence."
Mr Coaker admitted that such dramatic expansion of the way officials could seize goods did raise questions under human rights laws.
"We know there is a huge amount of money out there," he said.
"We are starting to make progress in a difficult area.
"There are human rights questions, there are questions about how far the law should go and questions about what powers we should give police and other law enforcement agencies to seize property as well as cash."
The paper proposed that removing the current 12-year time limit which applies to the Assets Recovery Agency's ability to confiscate property under civil recovery laws.
Earlier this year the ARA's former director, Jane Earl, admitted that the agency, which was set up in 2003, had been hampered by the time limit which meant it could not pursue some of its key targets.
The consultation paper proposed creating a new so-called criminal benefits order for lower value cases which could be applied by a magistrate or judge up to a value of £10,000.
Such a move would cover seven out of 10 confiscation orders.
The document said: "The order would be set simply assessing the benefit from the criminality for which the defendant has been convicted.
"When there is a victim, the order should be paid to him or her, when not, payment should be made to the State."
Reader views (5)
I used to work for the Inland Revenue (now HMRC) and we used to get informant letters all the time. The vast majority were from disgruntled tenants dobbing their landlords in it or customers who had paid cash-in-hand and weren't satisfied with the work done. In the main were baseless, although there were a few that yielded more than enough to make it worth checking every letter.
Personally I feel this is a decent enough idea and although HMRC's are unlikely to have the staff resources to do this, it should be applauded as any person who doesn't pay their tax is effectively stealing from us all.
- Mark, South-East London
Developing a network of informers and allowing people to work off grudges against their neighbours by investigating unfounded allegations, however small, is the classic means of social control used by. Amongst others, the Stasi in the former East Germany and the Gestapo in Germany in the years before WWII.
- Peter Haldane, London
"Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me."
1984, George Orwell.
- Paul, Newbury, Berks
There was a book written many years ago called 1984. Having moved away from England some time ago it is sad and worrying to see the country turned into a form of prison. Spies, CTV cameras, forms etc. Big Brother is certainly alive and well in the UK and it will take many generations to turn it back to the country that people want to visit and settle in. What ever happened to respect, education, common sense and moral values? These have been lost.
- Simon, Bucharest - Romania
The Government is turning everyone into spies. They are intentionally corrupting people.
- Jane, London
