Met faces theft claim after raid

Nine complaints are being looked at by Scotland Yard's professional standards directorate in a move that adds to a series of potentially damaging incidents for the force this year.

Investigators are looking into nine complaints, including two allegations of theft against officers who took part in Operation Rize.

Each holder of the 3,554 boxes seized at three Safe Deposit Centres Ltd depositaries has had to prove they legitimately own seized items since the raids in June 2008.

But concerns have been raised that the operation which attempted to uncover assets and links to organised crime may have broken the privacy of 2,500 innocent box holders.

It has been alleged that small items of jewellery and £8,500 cash were taken. Three claims for damage to property during the raid are said to amount to £5,000.

A Jewish man who survived the Holocaust is thought to be among the alleged victims. He kept a lump sum of cash in case his family were forced to flee their home once more.

A father whose daughter was killed in a car accident put a compensation payout in a box because he did not know what to do with it.

The contents of about 2,500 boxes have been returned while about 700 containing £15 million in cash have been passed to tax evasion teams at HM Revenue and Customs.

Roger Mortlock said his box was only returned after an lengthy process and he claimed the £110,000 it had contained had shrunk by £8,500.

The 59-year-old, who is being treated for cancer, said: "It took months to even get to the stage where I was allowed to retrieve my belongings, and then I found that a substantial amount of the money had gone missing."

Lawrence Kelly, a solicitor representing box holders, said police had forced people to prove they were not criminals.

A Met spokesman said: "A priority for the investigation has been to ensure that where contents are held legitimately, the owners have the contents returned to them as soon as possible."

Detectives say that a high percentage of boxes were being used by criminal gangs and the raid has led to a series of successful prosecutions into crimes ranging from money-laundering to prostitution and drug dealing.