LORD CASHVOCATE: Proceeds of Crime figures ‘now part of manipulated crime stats’ as figures reveal crooks receive more in legal aid than Crown Office takes in Cashback for Communities

Cashback for Communities eclipsed by legal aid to crooks. A RECENT Public Relations campaign by Scotland’s Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to promote cash taken from criminals via the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) - has been blown out the water after it emerged convicted crooks are costing taxpayers more than what prosecutors claim is returned to communities in asset seizures.

Today, the Scottish Legal Aid Board have revealed yet another convicted criminal who recently featured in publicity surrounding cash seizures from crooks – actually received more in publicly funded legal aid for his defence - than amounts of crime cash prosecutors claimed he had been ordered by the courts to repay.

Information released in response to a Freedom of Information request revealed Margaret Paterson – the Edinburgh madam who made a fortune running a £1.2m prostitution racket and was hit with a crime cash payback order for £1million  – actually received £144,802.50 taxpayer funded legal aid.

Her business partner – Robert Munro – who was hit with a crime cash payback order for £96,836 – received £147,370.12 of taxpayer funded legal aid – leaving public coffers £50K out of pocket

However, the true costs to taxpayers of the two cases referred to by the Legal Aid Board today may be significantly higher – according to a legal aid insider who told DOI earlier today: “factoring in legal aid, Crown Office legal fees, administration and court time, prosecution in the cases referred to are clearly over the £1million mark, so, there is in effect no cash back to communities from these cases.”

He described Proceeds of Crime figures as “little more than a myth which does not stand up to scrutiny when unbiased accounting is applied.”

The reality of Proceeds of Crime statistics and figures run counter to Press Releases and comments issued by Crown Office stars such as Lindsey Miller, Procurator Fiscal for Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism – who claimed after the court hearing on Munro & Patterson: "Today we have removed a vast amount of criminal earnings from organised crime groups operating right across Scotland.”

Miller went on to say: "These cases show the tenacity of law enforcement and prosecutors in pursuing the thing that is most important to criminals – their money.

In a Press Release from Police Scotland after the Proceeds of Crime orders against Paterson & Munro, Detective Chief Inspector Kenny Gray said: "These Confiscation Orders are some of the largest in Police Scotland's history and they send out a very clear message to organised criminals everywhere that we will do everything in our power to ensure they do not benefit from illegal gains.”

However, with legal aid, costs of prosecutions and huge salaries of Crown Office admin & prosecutors, legal insiders are in little doubt regular announcements of Proceeds of Crime cash seizures now form part of manipulated crime statistics published by politicians in attempts to justify billions of pounds spent on what has become a justice industry for lawyers, prosecutors and the courts.

Other cases where Proceeds of Crime figures have fallen far short of reality have also emerged - such as jailed tax cheat Michael Voudouri.

Voudori, who fled to Cyprus in 2012 after admitting his guilt in an £11.6 million money laundering scam – claimed VAT on bogus transactions in what judges described as a "complex money laundering operation", moving the money out of the country into foreign bank accounts.

He set up companies in the US and the British Virgin Islands to conceal the funds, before funnelling them back to Scotland to buy a house and fund a designer clothes business in Stirling.

Voudouri was eventually extradited back to Scotland where he is now in jail. He was also hit with a £207K Proceeds of Crime order in May 2015.

However, it was revealed Michael Voudouri has cost taxpayers over £600K in publicly funded legal aid.

Figures obtained from the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) revealed legal teams working for Voudouri have been paid £509,000 since 2009 and £79,000 was handed out for his 2004 trial. The sums are almost certain to rise as further costs are still to be added.

SLAB said the money was paid out to his defence team and for lawyers’ expenses. A spokesman said: “When Michael Voudouri’s legal aid was granted, the courts decided whether to grant legal aid for applicants being seen in the High Court or by a sheriff sitting with a jury.

“Responsibility for granting legal aid for these matters transferred to SLAB in November 2010 and we apply stringent tests which assess whether the applicant is financially eligible.”

The costs of Voudouri’s legal aid - on top of huge  costs of prosecution, investigation, and extradition from Cyprus back to Scotland of well over £2 million – leaves Prosecutors little to brag about if the true figure of bringing him to justice ever became known.

Proceeds of Crime figures regularly presented by Scotland’s top legal officers to the public as ‘crime successes’ do not add up, and are now beginning to anger even some in the crime fighting camp such as hard up budget strapped cops - who do all the leg work investigating & apprehending crooks - only to see big time prosecutions of major criminals hawked away in plea bargains and carefully spun out press releases presented by overpaid prosecutors on £100K + a year to a duped public.

Earlier this year, amid concern from Scotland’s top cops they were not seeing any of the supposed millions confiscated by the Crown Office, Police Scotland announced it was seeking £16 million over the next two years from the money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) to help plug its funding gap for the next two years.

Police Scotland is facing shortfalls in its budget because of delays in receiving cash under proceeds of crime (Poca) legislation.

Chief Constable Sir Stephen House told members of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in February that in many cases there was a "degradation" of value in the assets actually handed on.

He described the amount received by the force as "disappointing"

However, Police Scotland’s bid for £16m over two years roughly matches the entire current income from POCA which saw a drop in takings during 2013-14, receipts totalled £8m, down from £12m the year previously.

The Crown Office have offered no comment on how Proceeds of Crime figures are currently presented to the public and the media.

PROCEEDS OF CRIME: Judicial Interests investigation reveals top Sheriff Principal has shares in company fined £13.9million for Iraq bribes case & mining giant caught in China bribe scandal

MSPs debate judicial interests register, Top judge Alistair Dunlop revealed to have shares in bribes link firm. WHILE the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee continues to investigate proposals to create a register of interests for the judiciary contained in Petition PE1458: Register of Interests for members of Scotland's judiciary, it has been revealed in the media that a top Scottish judge holds shares in a firm hit with a £13.9 million Proceeds of Crime fine for bribing Saddam Hussein's regime.

Details of the Sheriff’s investments have come to light in disclosures contained in a limited register of interests covering a select few members of a judicial quango headed by Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord President Lord Brian Gill who is personally opposed to the creation of  a register of judicial interests for all members of Scotland’s judiciary – plans which are currently being discussed by msps at Holyrood.

The latest information, published by the Scottish Sun newspaper reveals that Sheriff Principal Alistair Dunlop QC, who is in charge of Tayside Fife & Central, has shares in Weir Group, which pled guilty to paying ‘kickbacks’ in return for contracts from Saddam Hussein’s government. The Weir Group also admitted facilitating the payment of kickbacks by paying a fee of more than £1.4 m to their agent, an Iraqi national, to the same Swiss bank account. The agent made the payments to the Iraqi government on behalf of Weir.

The paper also revealed that Sheriff Principal Dunlop has shares in British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, who were involved in bribes scandal in China where four of its executives including an Australian citizen, were found guilty of accepting millions of dollars in bribes and stealing commercial secrets. The four were given sentences of 7 years to 14 years in prison.

The case saw Rio Tinto accused of using stolen information to harm China’s economic interests, costing Chinese steel mills an additional $150 million a year. From 2003 to 2009, the court said, the four defendants used “improper means” to gain information that allowed Rio Tinto to “jack up the price that China paid for its iron ore imports.”

Further disclosures on investment links between members of Scotland’s judiciary and companies involved in criminal charges, prosecutions and scandals both at home and abroad is expected to be published soon.

The Scottish Sun on Sunday reports:

JUDGE HAS SHARES IN BRIBE FIRM

Stocks Register Plea

EXCLUSIVE: by Russell Findlay
Scottish Investigations Editor The Scottish Sun on Sunday May 11 2014

A TOP judge holds shares in a firm hit with a £13.9million proceeds-of-crime bill for bribing Saddam Hussein's regime,The Scottish Sun on Sunday can reveal.

Sheriff Principal Alastair Dunlop 62, has a stake in Glasgow based Weir Group, hammered in 2011 for paying kickbacks to land contracts in Iraq.

He also has shares in mining giant Rio Tinto, whose executives admitted bribery in China four years ago.

Sheriff Dunlop - the most senior sheriff in Tayside, Central and Fife - must declare his interests as a Scottish Court Service Board member but they are not made public.

Last night campaigner Peter Cherbi - who led calls for a register to improve transparency - said "I believe judges like Sheriff Principal Dunlop cannot hold investments in firms guilty of breaking the law"

Tory MSP John Lamont added "The public would fully expect judges to be transparent. A register would improve public confidence."

Sheriff Dunlop declined to comment but the Judicial Office for Scotland said investments were "a matter for the individual".

Previous articles on the lack of transparency within Scotland’s judiciary, investigations by Diary of Injustice including reports from the media, and video footage of debates at the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee deliberations on Petition PE1458: Register of Interests for members of Scotland's judiciary can be found here : A Register of Interests for Scotland's Judiciary

'Bonus Starved' Crown Office staff claim £10.5 million seized from crooks, while court officials refuse to say how much has actually been paid back

Crown Office staff lacking the usual big bonus payouts have turned to seizing more of crooks cash. WHILE Scotland’s Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) battle headline after headline of collapsed prosecutions & failed investigations, allegations of corruption, evidence fiddling, racism, professional bias and poor value for money over it’s near ONE HUNDRED MILLION POUND administration & wages cost,  a glimmer of light has emerged in it’s efforts to raise the amounts of cash ‘seized’ from crooks in the last financial year to around £10.5 million, according to figures announced yesterday by the Solicitor General. with £7 million coming from convicted drug dealers, money launderers and fraudsters while the Civil Recovery Unit claims to have recovered over £3.5 million during the same period.

In announcement from the Crown Office reporting this year's POCA figures, Lesley Thomson, the Solicitor General said : "Taking over £10.5 million from criminals is another great achievement by our dedicated Proceeds of Crime teams. "Just as important as the sum recovered is the disruption caused to individual criminals and serious and organised crime groups in Scotland. "Depriving criminals of their money and assets can significantly disrupt their activities, prevent them from re-investing their profits, and make it difficult for them to carry out their criminal enterprises. When the money and assets go so does the status and power.

The Solicitor General continued : "There is no place in Scotland for those who want a lifestyle funded by crime. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement agencies to use Proceeds of Crime laws to make Scotland an increasingly hostile place for these criminals. "I also welcome today's publication of the Civil Recovery Unit's second Annual Report which provides further information about its activities over the past year."

Campaigners for legal reform have serious doubts over the credibility of Crown Office claims they pursue those who profit from criminal activities, pointing out that in cases where solicitors have financially ruined their clients and when matters were reported to the Crown Office, charges were dropped because of a perceived bias that Scotland’s prosecutors were refusing to prosecute their colleagues in the legal profession. In one recent case reported by Diary of Injustice & the Sunday Mail newspaper, a lawyer who was the subject of reports to the Crown Office, ‘moved escaped to Italy’ while the Law Society of Scotland dithered over taking further action. It later transpired the Crown Office had REFUSED to prosecute the lawyer even though matters had been reported to it’s Procurator Fiscal in Stirling.

Another equally serious issue of Crown Office failure was revealed in a Diary of Injustice investigation where Freedom of Information legislation revealed the Lord Advocate & prosecutors at the Crown Office had allowed FOURTEEN solicitors to escape charges for millions of pounds of legal aid fraud. More on this story can be read here : FOURTEEN lawyers accused of multi-million pound legal aid fraud escape justice as Scotland’s Crown Office fail to prosecute all cases in 5 years

Other than the almost accidental recovery of funds from now deceased solicitor James Muir, who stole a staggering 1.8 million pounds of legal aid from right under the noses of the Scottish Legal Aid Board, officials were unwilling to give figures for the remaining 13 solicitors apparently successful theft of taxpayer funded legal aid.

The investigation into the Crown Office and legal aid fraud carried out by Diary of Injustice also revealed one of the solicitors accused of legal aid fraud was actually married to a Crown Office prosecutor, a fact which the Crown Office deliberately concealed from the public. More on that story can be found here : Admissible Evidence ? Crown Office Prosecutor married to lawyer accused of legal aid fraud, both still working, Legal Aid Board ‘convinced of guilt’

Lindsey Miller, Head of the Serious and Organised Crime Division (SOCD) and the COPFS POCA Champion, said : “The Proceeds of Crime Act is a powerful tool in our armoury in the fight against crime in Scotland. We continue to make maximum use of the legislation to deprive criminals of money and assets. We target people who make money from all types of crime, from serious and organised criminals engaged in money laundering and drug dealing, to individuals committing tax and benefit fraud and immigration offences. We have also applied to the court in a number of cases this year to have administrators appointed to take control of houses where accused have been unable or unwilling to sell them to pay the confiscation order. This sends a strong message that the Crown will not tolerate delay and prevarication in the payment of an order. Our priority is disrupting and dismantling criminal enterprises, and we will continue to work with the police, SCDEA, HMRC and DWP to achieve this aim."

However, Mr Millar and the Crown Office have not answered questions over how much was seized from a Scottish Judge who was charged with Benefits Cheating, and is understood to have remained on the judiciary.

In the case of the Benefits Cheat judge, reported by Diary of Injustice here : ALL THE LORD PRESIDENT’S MEN : Benefits cheats, drunk drivers & tax dodgers, yet identities of convicted Scottish judges to remain secret for now the Crown Office protected their identity and refused to disclose any further details about the case, even where it was being held, despite COPFS staff regularly putting out Press Releases naming & shaming other benefits cheats.

The Crown Office have also still to answer questions over why no confiscation orders have been served on a solicitor, recently reported in the media to have committed mortgage fraud to obtain properties in Edinburgh.

A detailed investigation into the case of the solicitor falsely claiming a higher salary to obtain a morgate revealed the Crown Office had blundered and not even picked up on details published on the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal of the solicitor’s mortgage fraud, more on which can be read here : Law Society of Scotland ‘deliberately failed’ to report mortgage fraud solicitor to Crown Office as cosy Tribunal deal allows lawyer to escape justice

Another lawyer who stole 116K from clients also slipped the Crown Office ‘net’, featured in an article here : Lord Advocate Mulholland in the dock as Crown Office dithers over prosecuting yet another CROOKED LAWYER who stole £116K from client accounts

Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill said : "I welcome this excellent work by police and prosecutors, seizing millions cracking down on gangsters and their ill-gotten gains. Criminals don't contribute to our communities, they live off them and serious organised crime has an impact on everyone in Scotland, harming communities and legitimate businesses through drugs, extortion and counterfeit goods. "That is exactly why cash seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act should be used to benefit communities which have suffered from criminal acts. "Our CashBack for Communities programme invests crooks' cash in building better, safer, stronger communities, improving facilities, taking young people off the streets and putting them on a positive path. We have invested over £45m in providing opportunities for some 600,000 young people to take part in hundreds of thousands of free sports and cultural activities since CashBack began in 2007.

The Justice Secretary continued : "Last year amendments were made to the Proceeds of Crime Act to provide law enforcement agencies with additional powers to target a wider range of criminals and criminal conduct. We are continuing to look at other ways to refine the Act to make it even more effective, and we are working closely with the Home Office to do so. We have also allocated approximately £2 million funding for financial investigators in the police and the Crown Office, to ensure even more criminals are targeted." 

In spite of the Justice Secretary’s fine words over recovering assets from criminals, Mr MacAskill was quick to support Crown Office staff linked to legal aid fraudster solicitors, more of which was featured in an earlier article by Diary of Injustice here : Justice Secretary’s discredited defence for Crown Office in 14 legal aid fraud scandals as links between accused lawyers & Scots crime agencies emerge

The amount recovered by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Civil Recovery Unit in the last 12 months brings the total secured since the commencement of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) in 2003 to over £69 million, which it is claimed has been put to the Scottish Consolidated Fund to be reinvested in Scottish communities via the CashBack for Communities programme.

However, as the Sunday Mail newspaper reports, in spite of the high profile announcement from the Crown Office over this year’s £10.5 million figure of cash seizures from crooks, officials refused to give actual figures as to how much money has actually been paid back. The paper reported : “Officials also admit they don’t know how much of the £10.5million has been paid. The Scottish Court Service said: “We don’t have a breakdown.” 

A regular court observer told Diary of Injustice earlier today : “This now annual show from the Crown Office seems more like a pitch for increased salaries or the return of lavish bonus payments”.

He continued : “If you take into account the high profile failures of prosecutions in the courts, and more case collapses than I’ve had hot dinners, I wouldn't be surprised if a significant proportion of monies recovered from criminals will end up going on court fees, legal fees and lawyers jollies”