May 2013
3 posts
"Caught Red-Handed" and not the TV programme!
“Caught Red-Handed” and not the TV programme!
There are ups and downs in our job, as in any other job. Executing a successful warrant is certainly one of those lofty occasions, particularly after a detailed investigation. The second high is a successful conviction.
Towards the end of last year my team went into a house in Saltdean with a drugs warrant and interrupted 2 males and a...
April 2013
1 post
March 2013
1 post
February 2013
4 posts
We have locked up another Organised Crime Group.
The gang of five males was involved in a fraud of over 2 million pounds stolen from Sussex University. The gang members were sentenced to a total of 16 years 7 months in prison, which is as a result of a 2-year joint investigation by our Money Laundering Team and the East Midlands Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART).
During the latter part of 2010 Sussex University was having new student...
Direct Entry: You cannot be serious!
We in the police are facing many new challenges at the moment and there still remains that air of uncertainty. However, what is constant and not changing at all is the criminals committing crimes and a lot of the crimes remain the same, theft, burglary, drug supply, assaults of varying degree to name a few. Some criminals (not all) are also getting more sophisticated and I see this in the work...
WatchMore on Alistair Stewart the Fraudster! This case just shows that we never stop investigating! If you remember on previous blogs in December the Stewart investigation unfolded and he was finally convicted to five and a half years in prison. Well his offending just did not stop whilst he was on bail. At one of the court hearings Stewart did not turn up and told the court he was not appearing as...
January 2013
4 posts
Domestic Homicide Reviews
I went up to the Home Office yesterday as I sit on the multi-agency National Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) Quality Assurance Panel. The reason I am involved in this is because a couple of years ago I had a four month secondment working in the Home Office to produce the National DHR guidance. An amazing opportunity, working with such a variety of agencies, bringing us all together for the one...
Award for Major Fraud Team
The Deputy Chief Constable presented an Outstanding Investigator Award to our hard working Major Fraud Team at our Awards Ceremony on Wednesday.
Chris Neilson (ECU DI) and myself put forward our Major Fraud Team as often their work goes on unnoticed and we thought it was about time to promote and acknowledge their commitment and expertise.
The Team, led by DS Sally Smith has undertaken a...
December 2012
7 posts
Christmas Cheer
As we follow through the Alastair Stewart case, I wanted to share this email with you as it epitomises the positive effects our work can have for victims of crime. I have said many times previously, this is the most rewarding part of our job.
Victims are at the heart of our work and cases like this make the years of difficult and often frustrating investigations worth it!
It is not just about...
The Voice of a Victim
Following on from my blog on 28th November about the successful conclusion to a 2-year fraud investigation, Alastair Stewart, 53yrs, from Burgess Hill was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison at the Old Bailey yesterday, despite credit for a guilty plea.
Stewart had posed as a wealthy businessman and financier and conned over £650 000 from Nina Siegenthaler out in the Turks & Caicos...
Soft Drugs – Hard Crime
Organised cannabis cultivation was one a fairly small-scale form of criminal behaviour, but has become a tough criminal world of extremely large profits and low risks for the criminals.
We need to deal with the organisations behind cannabis cultivation.
We arranged some training around drug investigations a few weeks ago. I am a strong advocate of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for...
They thought it was all over...........it is now!
They thought that it was all over (when they were sent to prison)..……well it is now after the final Proceeds of Crime (POCA) hearing at Birmingham Crown Court 2 weeks ago, where the six main defendants had more than a quarter of a million pounds of their criminal assets confiscated as a result of an extremely complex and detailed confiscation investigation.
My team of Financial Investigators work...
Detention or Prevention
The story of our success with Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPO) is told through my blogs in July and 23rd October and today……..
These SCPOs are preventative, restrictive and disruptive tools that we are using to help us monitor persistent and serious organized criminals. The conditions we put in the orders do restrict a person’s life but they are proportionate and necessary to help us in...
November 2012
7 posts
Sophisticated conman and fraudster convicted
It was two years ago, just after four on a Friday afternoon when DS Mick Richards answered the phone in the Money Laundering Team office. As Detectives we all know about those Friday afternoon calls at the end of the day that turn your working life upside down for many months, if not years! The call was from the local police at the Turks & Caicos Islands asking if we had heard of an Alistair...
Be alert to distraction burglary and if you're not...
The ACPO burglary awareness campaign features three themed weeks, this week the focus is on distraction burglaries. Distraction burglaries are where tricks, lies and distraction are used on a home owner, the most common types are where the offender pretends to be from the water board, gas or electricity, or they pretend to do repairs. Distraction burglars are members of serious organized crime...
The Devil's in Their Details
We are implementing Action Fraud in Sussex on 3rd December. As we are the force leads on fraud, we have been working hard to ensure all our processes for fraud link in smoothly with Action Fraud. (When I say we I mean Chris and Sally, thanks team!)
Action Fraud is the UKs national reporting Centre for fraud and Internet crime. The public (including businesses and charities) will be able, and...
Organisational Change!
The Sussex Integrated Operating Model (IOM) workshops held last Thursday and Friday were both well received by our divisional colleagues and partners. We held these workshops to raise awareness about organised crime and how we need to work together to reduce the harm caused by these organised crime groups (OCGs) on a local to global basis. We had speakers from the Home Office and the National...
Fraudsters caught preying on the elderly
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections are getting very near and suddenly the reality of the radical reforms to our policing hits home!
Will this American style of policing work for us? The PCC will have an incredible amount of power, including the power to sack the Chief Constable. This is an unsettling time for us, with many questions being asked. What level of knowledge and...
October 2012
6 posts
Peckover did not take long to breach his SCPO!
Back in July I blogged about our first successful Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) on Alistair Peckover, a serial fraudster. Peckover had been convicted of fraud for the third time in three years and we were hoping that the stringent conditions set in the SCPO would have prevented him undertaking any more criminal activity…..wrong!!!
Peckover breached his SCPO last week and also committed...
Keeping illegal drugs out of rented property
This week we have launched an on-line and printed guidance called “Keeping Illegal Drugs Out of Rental Properties-A guide for Property Mangers”.
This guidance is part of our ongoing work to disrupt organised crime groups as often they are behind this illegal activity, particularly cannabis cultivation as seen in some of my previous blogs. The commercial cultivation of cannabis is seen as a low...
SOCU Success and drug dealers jailed.
It is always a good week when you send drug dealers to prison and this week we convicted and sentenced three drug dealers, two of them from Eastbourne, to a total of ten and a half years. To see the positive results of months of meticulous and focused investigation and watch the defendants “go down” to the cells at Crown Court is one of the most rewarding parts of our job in my view and gives the...
September 2012
4 posts
A week of mixed emotions
The blog has been quiet because I have been away on a week’s course at Bramshill Police College as part of the Foundation for Senior Leadership Programme.
It was an excellent course. There were 24 of us, Chief Inspectors and police staff, from forces across the country. I always enjoy meeting new people and find it fascinating to see how most of us very quickly all gelled together, of course there...
Greening admits to money laundering
I am really enjoying the Paralympics; the athletes are inspirational as well as talented. My whole family are so engrossed and in absolute awe. As each day goes by I am getting a greater understanding of all the sports involved and the many disabilities and how they are grouped. Getting to know the athletes, their personal stories and despite their disabilities their ‘humbling’ strength and...
August 2012
4 posts
The impact of organised crime at a local level
So what has The Daily Mail’s controversial columnist, Richard Littlejohn been saying about the police recently….
“engaging with the community is little more than turning a blind eye to drug dealing and petty crime”. So where has this come from??
Last week at court Gary Smith and Peter Burton were found guilty of possession of 362g of cocaine with intent to supply. They had both been arrested last...
July 2012
10 posts
The Serious Crime Prevention Order
We are celebrating our first successful Serious Crime Prevention Order in Sussex. It was served on a serial fraudster, Alastair Peckover this month.
See http://www.sussex.police.uk/news-and-events/news/2012/07/31/serious-crime-prevention-order-issued-to-sussex-man
for press release.
So what is a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO)? They were introduced under the Serious Crime Act and were...
A Gatwick Hotel warrant
What you see on TV is the exciting raids, doors been barged through and suspects arrested. This part is true as we execute warrants and arrest on a regular basis. However, what is never shown is the meticulous preparation and then the hours of investigation and ‘file build’, which has to be done. Once someone has been charged, the case has to be prepared with witness statements, interview...
LITTLEJOHN stoops low even by Daily Mail standards
As I was lying on the beach in sunny Tenerife last week reading my resort courtesy copy of the Daily Mail I became incensed by LITTLEJOHN’s column “The Cops watch the boys who watch the girls go by”!
Daily Mail 10th July page 17
A sexist, ignorant, misinformed, inflammatory, disrespectful, insensitive and misjudged article. How dare he!
Littlejohn’s usual ‘slating’ of the British Police comes...
