Eight gold bars said to be worth £750,000 (NZ$1.48 million) are being auctioned off in the UK after they were seized from a passenger flying to Dubai.
The haul was found in the lunch box of a flyer at Manchester Airport by HM Revenue and Customs in 2018, but under new “civil proceeds of crime powers laws”, the bars are being sold off this week.
All the proceeds are going back into the “public purse”, so will be spent on services including hospitals and schools.
The gold bars weighed in at 16kg, or as the Customs described it, the “average weight of an adult Staffordshire Bull Terrier”.
The passenger who had been carrying the bars has not faced criminal prosecution.
Gill Hilton, assistant director at HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service, said it was the first time the 2017 Criminal Finance Act had been used to “seize and forfeit a listed asset, and it should act as a deterrent to criminals looking to trade assets such as precious metals”.
”If they are the proceeds of crime or intended for unlawful conduct, we now have the powers to take them from criminals.
"We are determined to cut off the funds that finance serious crime in the UK."
[link] [comments]
Comments
Post a Comment