Morning:
8°c
Courts to take action on Mr Big’s £3.2m spoils following legal outcry
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor7 Aug 2009
Customs prosecutors today announced that they are finally to take action to send a London organised crime boss back to jail over his failure to pay a £3.26 million confiscation order imposed seven years ago.
Raymond May, a 53-year-old from Bromley who was described in evidence cited in court as a “massive” cocaine importer suspected of involvement in several murders, was handed the financial penalty after being convicted of a multi-million pound VAT fraud.
As the Evening Standard revealed yesterday, he has failed to hand over a single penny since then - with the only money obtained to reduce his debt coming from two payments, totalling £155,000, collected from “third parties” involved in the case.
Lawyers have warned that the failure to enforce the confiscation order is making a mockery of British justice and expressed anger at the lack of action to activate a “default” sentence under which May could be returned to jail for six years for his failure to pay.
Amid the mounting criticism, the Government's Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office, which only 24 hours earlier had said merely that it was “keeping all options under review with regard to enforcing the default sentence”, issued a new statement in response to the Evening Standard's revelations in which it said that it was now planning to take May to court in September in a bid to send him back to jail for his failure to pay.
“We are asking the magistrates' court to activate his default sentence and a hearing has been fixed for 29 September,” said the statement issued on behalf of Alun Milford, the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office's head of assset forfeiture.
“We took this action as soon as it became open to us. At no stage have we done anything other than act swiftly to preserve Mr May's assets and then to enforce payment of the order.”
The new legal action by the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office follows strong criticism of its performance by lawyers involved in the case and accusations of incompetence and bureaucratic mismanagement.
Oliver Sells QC, who led the original prosecution, said the lack of progress in seizing the £3.26 million from May amounted to a “signal failure” that was sending the wrong message to serious criminals and potentially weakening the effectiveness of asset seizure legislation in other cases.
Another laywer involved in the case, the barrister Ivan Pearce, said the May case showed how the failure to take “robust action” could make a “mockery” of the legal system and could encourage organised criminals to think that “crime really can pay”.
May was convicted at the Old Bailey in September 2001 after the court heard how he and fellow defendants defrauded HM Revenue and Customs in an international VAT racket involving computer chips.
Further allegations that he had built a “criminal empire” involving armed robbery, drug importation and money laundering was presented to the judge. May, who has not faced charges on these allegations, was sentenced to four years for the VAT fraud and, at a subsequent hearing at Blackfriars Crown Court in 2002, given the £3.26 million confiscation order.
Court documents from the hearing show that his assets included five properties - including a 20 room family home in Bromley recently put up for sale for £2.5 million - as well as an ocean going yacht worth £175,000, a BMW and Mercedes, plus cash, jewellery and bank balances worth £83,703.
He was also said to have “very substantial undisclosed assets”, thought by lawyers connected to the case to be worth several millions of pounds.
If the magistrates' court hearing now scheduled for September 29 agrees to activate the default penalty, May will be returned to jail for six years unless he pays his confiscation order.
Reader views (5)
What is the problem with taking all the guy's assets now ? Where else do the Inland Revenue think he got the money to buy these things ?
Let us a hope a block is put on everything, pending the silly appeal. Why is he not on remand ?
- Michael, Kensington, UK, 07/08/2009 18:24
Report abuse
Put me in charge of the criminal justice system and right now he would be serving a LONG sentence. If I could change the system in favour of the victims of crime why can't our MPs do the same? The answer is simple they are not up to the job, they are there to pick up a wage whilst doing as little work as possible. The people deserve better but will sadly do nothing for themselves except whinge, it is time for direct action.
- William Ear, Waltham Cross, 07/08/2009 18:16
Report abuse
Crime pays!
Our customs and judicial agencies so often appear to be recruiting agents for criminals in this country; in that deterrents operate on the minimal scale.
Morale amongst the police must get pretty low.
- James, London, 07/08/2009 10:48
Report abuse
"At no stage have we done anything other than act swiftly" - PHEW. Thank goodness that the best people are dealing with this, 7 years, imagine how long it would have taken if there were buffoons running the show.
- Andy Davids, London, 07/08/2009 09:40
Report abuse
So why do I have that sinking feeling that some of the peole who should have been enforcing the law all this time, have some personal incentives not to?
- Not Bent, Bungville, 07/08/2009 09:38
Report abuse
