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Crooks' £53m cash and carry
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent12.06.08
Police have found a total of £53.5 million cash in London safety deposit boxes which they suspect were used by major criminals.
Detectives say millions of pounds were found stuffed in carrier bags from supermarkets including Tesco.
They believe the cash could be the proceeds from armed robberies and international drug trafficking.
It remains possible that some of the cash is from the 2006 raid on the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, according to the officers. Much of the £53 million stolen in Britain's biggest robbery has not been recovered.
Among the other items found in the centres in Park Lane, Edgware and Hampstead were four handguns, ammunition, paintings, gold ingots and gold dust, jewellery, drugs, fraudulent passports, paedophile material and fake documents.
The final tally is to be revealed today by Scotland Yard chiefs, 11 days after armed police raided the three safety deposit centres. Detectives swooped after a two-year investigation into claims that the centre's managers were leasing boxes to gangsters to hide the spoils and proceeds of crime.
Three directors - two men and a woman - were arrested and bailed pending further inquiries. The haul is thought to have prompted up to 2,000 further criminal investigations.
About 300 officers searched up to 7,000 safety deposit boxes ranging from small book-sized boxes to large walk-in safes. The boxes were taken to a secure location in an heavily armed convoy before being opened.
The discoveries have included three holdalls stuffed with £1.5 million in cash and six suitcases containing a honeycomb-type gold dust valued at £8 million.
Senior officers believe the raids have dealt a major blow to serious organised crime networks.
Commander Allan Gibson, of the Yard's Specialist Crime Directorate, said after the raids: "This is all about criminal networks using alternatives to the usual banking system and they have been assisted by people willing to turn a blind eye.
"We have been told by our partner agencies that the impact has already been felt within criminal fraternities across the world."
Two of the directors of Safe Deposit Centres Limited - Leslie Sieff, 60, and Jacqueline Swan, 44 - were arrested during the raids this month while a third, Milton Woolf, 52, was held at Heathrow Airport after flying in from the states. All were held on suspicion of money-laundering.
Police have received 850 requests from members of the public for the return of their property.
Reader views (2)
Okay, let's cut through the PR spin for a moment and consider the implications of the police seizing the private, personal property of thousands of random, law abiding citizens without reasonable grounds to believe that they have committed offences, and without issuing warrants against the individuals.
Anybody else feel that David Davies might have a point?
- Lockie, London
Question now is what happens to the recovered loot? But then I suspect we will never hear about that bit any more...Perhaps it's worth throwing into the falling economy.
- Sola, Basildon, Essex.
