Episode 4 Ill Gotten Gains

When the cell door slams shut on a criminal,

you might think they've got their just deserts

but the law doesn't stop there.

Criminals are now having their most prized possessions

hunted down, seized, and sold at auction to the highest bidder.

Welcome to Ill Gotten Gains.

In this programme, one police team have the task of taking on

the most cunning love rat they have ever had to deal with.

He is essentially a lying, conniving thief.

And it's not just the men stealing money.

One very clever con woman took a fortune from would-be

male escorts across the country.

She spent their money on luxury shoes and bags.

The guys that she's taking the money from is

a form of cattle that she's just milking, I should think.

And a criminal's cash has been turned into

a boat lover's delight in the Midlands as money from

the Proceeds of Crime Act is keeping this community project afloat.

People are absolutely delighted that it hasn't come from

taxpayers' money, but it has come, as we like to say,

from drug dealers and other criminals.

Across Britain every day, teams of specialist police officers

are using a powerful law called the Proceeds of Crime Act

to take cash and property from people

who make money in illegal ways.

They might be fraudsters, drug dealers or benefit cheats,

but any cash they made through breaking the law

will be taken away by police.

They've seized over £150 million from crooks in a year.

And it's not just cash that gets seized.

This building may not look like Sotheby's,

but millions of pounds worth of goods owned by crooks

get sold off here every year.

This is a location miles away from London where they hold

barely advertised auctions called Proceeds of Crime sales.

They're open to the public

and any ill-gotten gains seized by the police

will get sold to the highest bidder.

Up and down the country, there are secret locations like this one

where the police store assets seized from criminals using

the powerful Proceeds of Crime law,

designed to hit crooks where it hurts the most - in their pockets.

And the police will take everything a criminal has bought

with money made from crime.

If you think of anything that you could buy or would want to buy,

whether it be symbolic, whether it be status,

something you require,

so it can go from property,

a lot of money is invested in property, there's cars,

there's all the associated bling, jewellery, watches.

But people have bought boats, they've bought artwork,

there's cases in the past of racehorses, greyhounds.

Anything of a monetary value or status symbol.

Most of us want to meet the love of our lives

and then settle down happily together.

But if the love of your life is money then some people will

go to any lengths to get it.

This is a story about how through sheer grit and guile,

Detective Tim Powell, from West Mercia Police,

was able to outsmart a cunning fraudster.

Eventually, he was caught on tape, right in front of his eyes,

committing the foul deed.

Could you give me your full name and date of birth, please?

Matthew Park Samuels, 28/01/65.

It's a case that also shows how powerful the law is,

by being able to strip scammers of their assets and return

to the victims what's rightfully theirs.

Do you recognise the voice?

This is Matthew Samuels.

He's what some people would call a love rat.

Over a number of years, he conned various unsuspecting women

out of their money whilst pretending

to be an international millionaire businessman.

The woman that he met were in their 40s, middle-class,

experienced women, professional women,

people with good backgrounds,

people that were looking for someone to share

the rest of their life with.

In fact, Matthew Samuels was a second-hand car dealer from Worcester

and detective Tim Powell is all too familiar with the traits

of this type of crook.

He is essentially a lying, conniving thief with a silver tongue,

a man that wants to basically fleece you of your cash.

No remorse,

no feeling towards the trail of destruction that he's left behind.

Having received multiple complaints that he

conned lovers out of money, they decided to launch an investigation

and soon discovered the deviousness of his crimes.

He will get to know you, he will find out your name

and your date of birth.

He will suggest a surprise holiday,

so therefore he needs your passport.

Once he's got all these details,

he will then run a credit check on you,

he will find out what your financial worth is,

how much time he needs to spend with you

as to satisfy your need

and to satisfy his reward,

which is, ultimately, cash.

He was pretending to invest their money,

but what he was actually doing was spending their cash

on these luxury cars, seen here in lock-up.

And whenever these woman asked for their money back,

the shameless fraudster always had an excuse up his sleeve.

He would say his father had died,

he would say someone had cancer,

he had cancer, he was in a hospital, he was being treated.

No lie was too low.

Anything to get them off his back.

Unconvinced by Samuels' far-fetched stories,

Tim Powell wanted to dig deeper.

So they brought him in for questioning.

When we first arrested Matthew, he was very confident

and he was used to giving a very surface story,

so he was very comfortable.

His body language was open, trying to present a confident,

honest man that hadn't done anything wrong.

But they didn't believe Samuels,

so they raided his home and seized paperwork and computers.

It was while sifting through hundreds of documents

the team discovered correspondence of particular interest.

One of the key elements in the investigation was

a letter from a building society that basically said,

"We've agreed to your £10,000 loan."

It wasn't addressed to him,

it was addressed to the woman that he was living with at the time.

This woman said she knew nothing about the loan.

At the bottom paragraph, it said something,

"And I hope you're feeling better."

This pleasant but particularly unusual sign-off

by the building society was a crucial turning point in the case,

and one that would inevitably lead to Samuels' downfall.

So we made enquiries, and you'd expect

a call centre not to remember calls

cos they must get hundreds,

but we managed to speak to somebody who said, "I do remember that call.

"It was so unusual because the lady on the other end,

"she had severe laryngitis, I could hardly understand her."

The lady had had nothing wrong with her,

she didn't know anything about this and couldn't understand it.

Tim Powell was onto something. He knew it.

All he needed was a recording of the phone call

to prove who the voice really was.

But the forensics team had discovered something even better.

Unbelievably, they had found recordings on Samuels' computer

of him practising and impersonating the lady's voice,

but with a terrible bout of laryngitis.

We were able to find that he had recorded, the day before,

on his computer, two excerpts

where he is practising her voice.

I could clearly identify that that was Matthew's voice.

There was a feeling of, "We've got you."

What I needed to do was let him know that we had that recording.

-RECORDING:

-Today is Friday. It is 5th September.

Samuels was about to hear his own voice played back to him

pretending to be the caller.

The question is, what excuse would he use this time?

He's never heard this before.

Play it again, please.

Matthew is now boxed into a corner.

He's heard those recordings,

it clearly is Matthew,

anyone that's spent any time with him

would be able to say that's Matthew.

Were you practising to make sure that you got your voice right before

you spoke to the bank?

No comment.

I put it to you that Susan had

no idea that this £10,000 loan

was being taken out and that's why

you went to such lengths in order to get that £10,000 loan.

What did you do with the money?

No comment.

Matthew, as you can see here, I suspect is desperately trying

to think of some explanation that would exonerate him.

But of course there isn't.

So all he could say is, "No comment."

Did you pretend to have laryngitis,

pretending to be Susan, when you were talking to the bank?

No comment.

Later at the trial, the judge accepted that Samuels had conned

five women out of a combined total of £180,000

and he was sentenced to eight years behind bars.

But Tim Powell wanted to go further,

and thanks to the Proceeds of Crime law

they seized his assets,

auctioned off his cars and £120,000

was given back to the victims.

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the Crown Prosecution Service,

as well as the police, it is a duty to try and recompense

victims of crime

and that's why they go after these people.

Although the emotional impact and heartache caused by Samuels

might never be healed, cracking the case and putting Samuels behind bars

is just the start of what the Proceeds of Crime law can do.

So I knew most of these women right from the start

and the journey that they had gone through,

so they've lost out financially,

they've lost out big time

as far as their future is concerned,

and now he's imprisoned.

So, for me, personally, him getting that sentence was great,

the woman getting their money back was better.

Fraud is one way of making a lot of money quickly.

Drug dealing is another. But either way,

you'll be earning money that's going to attract police attention.

Stripping big players on the crime scene of their valuable assets

lies at the heart of the Proceeds of Crime Act

and one man who found out the hard way

was drug dealer Curtis Brooks.

He was jailed for over ten years after being identified

as a ring leader responsible for the widespread supply of

high-grade cocaine in Bristol.

Throughout his dealings, he pocketed over £300,000 and invested

in a criminal favourite - a very fancy watch.

Well, successful drug dealers can come into a lot of money

and things like watches are very, very portable assets.

A watch is one of those symbolistic things of,

"Look at me, look how much I'm worth," sort of thing

or, "Look at my status," or whatever,

which is often the motivation behind drug dealers or people of

that criminal ilk and organised criminals.

But as the 18-carat gold watch was bought with drug money,

dealer Curtis Brooks was forced to give it up

to repay his debt to society.

And the watch is highly desirable.

Originally produced for use at sea,

it's the brand that has an enduring appeal.

If they're maintained and looked after and have all their box

and papers and certifications

they can last a lifetime and be passed on generationally.

So they'll do very well at these types of auctions.

It's a very popular Rolex,

particularly something with 18-carat gold.

Gold is gold, regardless of if it's on a Rolex or not,

so it'll have a strong value no matter what,

because of the gold content.

Add that to a Rolex Yacht-Master, you've got a very collectable item.

But will anyone want it?

The Rolex Yacht-Master. 18-carat gold.

Five to get me away.

£5,000. 52. 54.

£6,000 online.

Bidding at 62, I'm bid.

At 66, 68.

68, I'm bid.

At £7,000. Bidding at 72.

77.

Online bidding at 79.

At £8,000.

Bidding at £8,000,

and I sell online.

8,000 once,

8,000 twice.

Third and last. 8,000, sold...

So it's £8,000 back to the public purse

from the watch bought with drug money.

It's a good result for everyone except the dealer,

who lost his watch.

High-value watches and cars are some of the most popular items

police seize from convicted criminals

but the police are now just as likely to raid a crook's wardrobe

as they are to empty his or her bank account.

Up for auction today is this fabulous collection of shoes,

all of them taken from one careful lady owner.

She also has a fine collection of handbags,

all of them from the most desirable labels on the market.

Whoever owned these was obviously very good at making money,

to be able to afford such a collection.

But why is it that these luxury shoes and bags have ended up

at a proceeds of crime auction?

This is Claire Miller.

She ran a company that placed adverts in local papers

asking for eligible men to join up to her agency

and for a fee, she would get them paid work,

but not just any old work -

the men she was looking for were being hired to be male escorts.

Through her company, she claimed that she would hire the men out

as escorts for ladies who would pay up to £300 an hour

for the pleasure of the men's company.

Nice work, if you can get it.

Unsurprisingly, men across the country signed up to join in.

I believe there were many thousands of people,

and I believe it's in the region of around about 17,000 people

who joined up to the scam.

David Gates at Merseyside Police was one of several officers

who wound up dealing with Claire Miller and her company

because people were calling the police

to claim they had been scammed.

The scam that these people were telling us about was

this individual had targeted them via newspapers

whereby they'd advertised vacancies for employment

for drivers, chauffeurs,

male escorts, TV extras

and with the promise of large amounts of cash in reward.

For wages, it would be two, three, £400 an hour

that was the promise of these individuals.

However there was a small catch, and the catch was they had to pay

a registration fee of approximately £250

and there were many, many thousands of individuals

that paid this registration fee.

Once that registration fee was paid, there was no further contact.

And the men were all down a large chunk of money

they simply couldn't afford to lose.

I would say, generally, we were getting calls from people

who were out of work, they were generally more vulnerable,

they were committed to try and make a living,

they were desperate people,

in some cases, who wanted to earn money to support their families

in times of economic hardship.

And so they scrimped and scraped and borrowed money often in cases

to pay this £250 registration fee.

Local newspaper adverts were drawing in

a large number of men who desperately needed to find work,

but the wannabe escorts didn't realise the ads were a scam.

Just to give you an example of some of the adverts that were

being placed in some of the newspapers.

There's certainly one here. "All male services.

"Requires men urgently for escorting. No experience required.

"All ages, all types. High earnings possible."

So whilst men across the country were getting themselves

preened for well-paid dates with lonely ladies,

the reality was not one of the 17,000 applicants

was contacted back and offered work

but most paid their £250 joining fee,

so Claire Miller was probably too busy shopping with their money

to call back.

Police financial investigator David Gates could see it was a con.

He seized Claire Miller's bank account details

and took a look at what she was doing.

You can see it's actually Claire Miller's bank account

and you can see there are some high-value transactions.

£6,500,

£3,000,

in excess of £7,000.

What was the cash being spent on?

When police raided Miller's Northampton home, they found out.

I've got a list of the assets that were seized

from her home address in Northampton,

and it's quite an extensive list.

I can go through some of them.

You know, the first one, top of the list, there's a,

"Louis Vuitton brown and tan ladies handbag,

"Christian Dior pink ladies handbag,

"Gucci brown leather ladies handbag,"

multiple pairs of designer shoes, footwear.

Whilst Miller was busy spending the cash from her victims,

only a fraction of those who were scammed

even came forward to report the crime.

You tend to get people who are too embarrassed to complain,

and certainly the more vulnerable members of the community.

Some people say, "Well, it's only £250 I've lost."

There is that aspect to it.

The other aspect is it's too embarrassing to report

this matter to the police.

But when love is for sale,

there's always the chance that you'll lose your shirt.

This is James.

He's been a successful escort for nearly two years

and has asked us to disguise him.

He says male escorts are a frequent targets of scammers.

The majority of contacts I get that make me think,

"This is suspicious,"

they're written with very poor grammar,

they almost always mention Africa as a destination.

"I'm going on a business trip to Africa for ten days

"and I need a companion to give me hugs and massages."

And they offer to pay you £2,000 a day

and that sounds great.

But when the person says that they're coming from,

"United Kingdom,"

not, "I live in the United Kingdom,"

or, "I live in London,"

or whatever, the way it's written is clearly not someone

who has a good grasp of English and grammar.

It's clearly poorly done,

an amateurish attempt to try and swindle someone.

Once I even responded to them saying, "You've got to be joking.

"If you're going to try and rip people off,

"at least do a better job than that."

They responded, "Ha-ha-ha-ha."

But it's no laughing matter for James. He needs the money.

I am a parent, I've got a nine-year-old son,

and I'm Daddy for most of the time.

I do a normal job in the daytime and bump into normal people

and have normal conversations,

it just so happens that in the evenings and the weekends,

I sometimes go and visit strangers

and spend time with them and earn money doing that as well.

Just a little bit of a way to help get a little bit extra to

make sure that I can provide for my son and look after him.

But one very slick scammer was a bit more persistent

and clearly had a lot of experience dealing with escorts.

So I was first contacted at the start of September

with a lady who said that she'd seen my profile and she liked

the look of me and what I'd said about myself

and that she had lots of enquiries with lots of clients,

international businesswoman and so on,

who were willing to pay a reasonable amount of money

to spend time with me at dinner dates,

three hours guaranteed, £780 or something.

But there was a small hurdle.

All I needed to do was to register with them

and then I'd be able to arrange the date.

They sent me the details over of the lady.

She sounded nice, she was a Dutch businesswoman,

and it sounded very interesting.

So then she brought up the idea of this registration fee

that I had to pay in order to get onto their books.

It rang alarm bells because I'd been warned previously,

"Beware if someone asks you for a registration fee

"before they give you a date."

But I thought,

"Well, it's a lot of money to earn for one day,

"just for a three-hour dinner date,

"the possibility of something else afterwards.

"And it would also be a good start with this firm, this agency."

She phoned me the next day to say, "Great, we've got your money,

the lady's coming over on the 4.30 flight,

we'll pick you up at this time

and then you'll go over to the restaurant,

our car will wait for you and then it will bring you back again

at the end of the evening.

So I was convinced that that seemed pretty good.

And James received some e-mails from the company

that looked very enticing.

The day of the date, I had an e-mail from her,

another phone call saying everything's OK.

I was just getting ready that evening, in the shower,

and I got an e-mail through, not a phone call,

an e-mail through saying,

"She's had to delay, her father's ill."

And as soon as that came through, I thought, "Oh, here we go."

The date was cancelled at the last minute,

but James didn't get his money back.

I've left one or two voicemail messages,

but then I figured I'm just making myself angry and feeling more silly.

I've sent an e-mail or two and there's been no response,

so I've now given up on it.

James's 300 quid had disappeared too.

When I finally resigned myself to the fact the money was lost,

it was really frustrating.

That's a considerable amount of money and it's...

I just feel silly.

I mean, I entered it kind of half-expecting to get ripped off,

but hoping against hope that I wouldn't.

I'd read advice on forums and things saying,

"Beware of people asking you for money,"

and I thought, "Yeah, but this one sounds so credible.

"She's very efficient, she sounds really enthusiastic."

But James knows exactly why escort cons are so attractive to scammers.

Because of the nature of the industry, it's the sort of thing

that you don't want to make a big fuss about

because of the nature of it.

You've got to try and be discreet and keep things confidential,

and if you make a fuss about it, you think,

"Well, people are going to ask awkward questions or so on."

And I guess that's what they're banking on.

They're thinking that they're preying on a vulnerable or

a group of people who don't want to go public and make a big fuss,

so they're able to do these sort of scams and get away with it.

If it seems too good to be true,

it is too good to be true.

It doesn't happen like that, unfortunately.

Unless you're, I don't know, in Beverly Hills or Las Vegas,

£800 for a couple of hours chatting to an attractive woman

doesn't come along very often,

and if it does, it's probably dodgy.

But from Gateshead to Dover,

British men were scammed all too easily by Claire Miller.

I can see that, yes, if a lot of guys saw,

"Earn £750 for three hours,"

they'd think, "Brilliant, I'll have a go at that."

And they get all excited about it and they get all geared up

and think it's going to be fantastic and then think,

"Oh, OK, I've got to pay a registration fee. Fair enough.

"And then the pounds will just roll in."

It can be very easy to ignore the potential risks

if you think there's a big payday in it for you.

And back in Liverpool, the complaints were still flooding in.

David Gates and his fellow officers arrested Claire Miller

on suspicion of fraud.

It turned out she was also wanted by police elsewhere in Europe.

I believe she was motivated purely by greed.

It was a national scam. There were people from all over the country

paying these registration fees

and there was large amounts of money and huge profits for her to be made.

At her trial, the judge sentenced Claire Miller

to three years and nine months in jail,

and David and his team of financial investigators

determined she had made roughly £1.9 million from her scam.

With 17,000 suspected victims,

it's not surprising she made so much money.

And David Gates believes that's why she got such a lengthy sentence.

For a fraudster of this nature, I do believe it was a fair sentence.

In addition, it's worthy of note that Claire Miller

is also subject to a financial reporting order

for ten years, upon her release.

So financial investigators will be keeping a close eye

on any money Claire Miller is making.

And male escort James thinks it's only fair

she loses her shoes and bags.

Yeah, well, I guess if you've been found guilty of a crime,

that's as a result of taking money from people under false pretences,

it seems only fair to me that what you've bought with that money

doesn't belong to you any more.

It didn't belong to you in the first place, you didn't earn it,

it's only fair that the money goes back...

if not to the people it deserves, then to someone...

I don't know, a charity or something like that.

It certainly doesn't belong to the person who's committed the crime

in the first place.

Claire Miller is a young lady who craves what I believe to be

that status in life and she doesn't really care how she gets

to that status and if it means having vulnerable victims off,

then that's what she will do.

And that's why this proceeds of crime auction looks

like the shoe section at Harrods.

Claire Miller's shoes and handbags

that she ripped off so many people to buy, are now all

due to be sold. Later on, we'll see what they sell for.

Criminals use their ill-gotten gains to buy all different kinds

of luxury goods. This man wanted to fund his hobby

by trying to cheat the system out of illegally earned cash.

This is Tony Bodgin. Tony enjoys a spot of golf

and has his own set of fancy clubs.

Unfortunately, Tony also enjoys a spot of fraud.

Over a period of five years,

he abused his position as a housing manager at Exeter Council

to fraudulently make £400,000.

It all stemmed from his contact with outside contractors.

Tony had set up his own company and the company was actually

looking at surveying properties. So we have a number of properties

of housing stock and one of the things is to actually go and

inspect those properties from an insulation perspective,

to see if they need insulation. What Tony was doing -

he'd set up a company and as part of that company, he was saying

he was carrying out the inspections, he was billing the council

for the work but those inspections hadn't taken place.

And when the council investigated further into their own employee's

working practices, they found that he was receiving backhanders

from suppliers, often to keep quiet that work hadn't been done.

So, I think, as an organisation generally, we feel very

disappointed in respect of his behaviour

and exceptionally let down.

Tony Bodgin wanted to take his fraudulently earned cash

and spend it here on the golf course.

But after he was sent to the police station here,

he was then sent to the magistrates' court next door

and then to jail

and that means no need for his golf clubs.

So, they are being sold to pay back a small part

of the money Tony Bodgin made.

On the bottom left of your screen,

is the online auction of his golf clubs.

They are being sold whilst he is in jail.

And they were sold for a rather humble £90.

That money will be returned to the state,

just a small part of what Tony Bodgin had to pay back

in total, but a reminder for all fraudsters

that their plans of a luxury lifestyle

often end in the jail cell.

One of the biggest-ever projects funded by proceeds of crime auctions

is something that has benefitted the many rather than the few.

This community found a way to use money from criminality

to transform a local landmark.

Using auction sales and freezing bank accounts has led to police

being able to claim back over £140 million that's been made

by people committing crime

and a small chunk of that money has been put to good use here,

in a place that used to be the haunt of drug dealers and users,

but not any more.

The canal here in Chesterfield was built in the 1700s.

But in the 20th century, it fell into disuse and a piece of Britain's

economic history became an unloved local eyesore.

And canal enthusiast Rod can remember what this place

used to be like.

The towpath was in a terrible state.

Glue sniffers and so on would hang about here.

It certainly wasn't the sort of place

you would stay or you would want to sit down

and sit and have a pot of coffee

and a sandwich or something like that.

You would just, sort of, walk straight through.

Local people would never use an area like this to come and relax.

I think that's a fair thing to say.

Local volunteers wanted to turn the area into somewhere people

would want to come to and worked very hard to improve the canal

but they felt there was a limit to what they could do.

The big outbuildings on the site would never return to their

former glory without an enormous cash injection and no-one

at the trust had that sort of money.

There was an old lockhouse here and that was incredibly dangerous

and it was about to fall down.

I mean, bricks falling out of the walls, it was that bad,

so it would have to be knocked down.

Then we heard of a government scheme called Community Assets

and they had an awful lot of money that they were willing to hand out

to people who were developing buildings which were dangerous

that belonged to local authorities

that could then be put to community use.

And so we applied.

And that's when the Proceeds of Crime Act sailed to their rescue.

The volunteers applied for funding from the government as they

had heard there was cash available for the right projects.

They knew the cash had come from seized criminal assets

but they hoped it would turn the area into something much better.

What they received was over £300,000,

which had come from Proceeds of Crime seizures.

This huge cash injection enabled them to give people a reason to come

down to the canal because they had built this -

a visitor centre and cafe.

-Good afternoon, ladies.

-BOTH:

-Hello!

And here we have Dawn, who's known as Nona,

and that's why it's Nona's Coffee Shop,

and Courtney and Katie.

One of the attractions of this place is that they do all their own

baking and people... People really love that.

And around here, it looks like the money has gone from the crooks to

the cooks because apparently this place

has the best cakes in Chesterfield.

When it's really sunny, you get loads and loads of people all day

and the bike racks outside are completely full.

It's just... It's just amazing

and you get people queuing out the door.

Thank you very much indeed. Thank you, ladies.

And with fantastic food and new buildings available,

more people were coming to an area that had previously been

abandoned to drug users.

They say, "Oh, this is a lovely place.

"Where did you get the money to build this?"

So I just say that we got it through drug dealers and they're always

a bit fazed, but then when you explain the situation

and what's happened and it's basically repaying people

who've been ripped off, then they think it's wonderful.

It's a great idea.

And so the more of that sort of thing that happens, the better.

And speaking of doing more,

Rob and the other volunteers have had another successful bid.

The local Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner

has just given them over £20,000 for a new canal boat

and Rod and the team are about to carry out their launching ceremony.

Today is a naming ceremony for new boats,

which has been funded partly through the local

Police and Crime Commissioner's NICE fund,

which is a Proceeds of Crime fund and community groups can

apply for it and we were lucky enough to be able to get some

of the money for this fantastic boat you can see before you.

The Canal Trust have asked the former Police and Crime Commissioner

Alan Charles to help them launch the boat.

On that boat, there's a plaque that says,

"This boat has been part-funded with money seized

"from criminals in Derbyshire."

We made five rewards in the end to groups right across Derbyshire.

There's a community hall, there's a community garden, a park,

a football club and, of course, this wonderful new boat,

which people from right across Derbyshire, right across the UK,

can come and see and enjoy the proceeds of criminal earnings.

It's something that all sections of the community will use over

the next 20 years.

We will take thousands of people out into...

Onto the canal and they really enjoy it.

The money has certainly made local people happy.

People are absolutely delighted that it hasn't come from

taxpayers' money, but it has come, as we all would like to say,

drug dealers and other criminals

and they're really very, very interested that

that can be used into something which has developed

into a real community hub. It's great news.

It's great news.

I think it's a strong message to the criminals.

I want to thank them for giving us their money back

and saying, "We're doing this for the community,"

and that's really good.

Who would have thought that selling off Rolexes and fast cars

would have resulted in a local community being able

to buy themselves a canal boat?

It is still money from nasty people

being turned to wonderful community use.

So all kinds of people, thousands...

No, tens of thousands of people will travel in this boat at some stage

and enjoy our wonderful canal.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Before Proceeds of Crime money can fund much-needed projects,

something has to be sold off to raise the finance

and sometimes it's the cars driven by crooks that are seized

and auctioned off to the highest bidder.

If you've made money through crime,

police officers will pursue you to get that money back.

That often means seizing a prized motor car or two,

which hits crooks hard.

Very, very popular with criminals, vehicles, for lots of reasons.

One, you need a vehicle. Two, it's a status symbol.

Three, it's nice to have a nice vehicle to drive around in.

And, as a result of one criminal case, these two status vehicles

are about to make a hasty departure from the streets of London.

Their owner has been forced to sell them after

a Proceeds of Crime investigation.

But he wasn't a drug dealer or a thief - he was a businessman.

The gentleman in question here is a man called Raphael

who, along with others, was convicted of being involved in

a fraud whereby they were signing off company accounts which had

the potential to defraud the banking system of £9 million.

Following his conviction, as part of his confiscation,

these were some of the items that were seized and went off to auction.

The fraudster behind the case was clever,

but he didn't outsmart the Metropolitan Police's

Asset Recovery Team and, as a result, Raphael

is just about to lose two very desirable vehicles

because this is a removals team who have orders

to take his cars off the street and sell them at auction.

And when these two vehicles went under the hammer,

they sold straight away,

netting roughly £14,000, money that will be returned to the Treasury.

But it's not just white-collar criminals losing cars,

this Audi A4 belonged to a gang of drug dealers in Portsmouth.

They were shipping large quantities of drugs down from Manchester

to the south coast.

The gang would text local addicts, advertising they had brought

in fresh drugs and business was booming.

They made roughly £450,000

before they were caught by Hampshire Police,

and ringleaders John Burns and Luke Leighton received eight years

and nine years respectively.

And, as well as losing their liberty, they're losing

their wheels because this Audi is up for sale right now.

OK, folks, the first of the vehicles tonight - lot 43.

This is the Audi A4 2.0 Tdi Quattro.

Great car. 170 brake horsepower, dynamic five-door estate.

And it's here to be sold, straight in from the police, with no reserve.

Where are we on the Audi? Do I have £10,000 on the Audi?

£10,000 anywhere? Give me nine. £8,000.

It's in the hall at 8,200.

As in £8,200.

That's very cheap for lot number 43,

for a 2012 Audi A4.

At 8,200. 84. 8,400.

86 online. Bidding at 86?

£8,600 once...

8,600 twice...

-Third and last...

-GAVEL BANGS

..sold online, well done.

Being a criminal is all about upping your spending power

and whatever a crook can buy with illegally made money

can also be put under the hammer.

Earlier on, we saw how con artist Claire Miller tricked 17,000 men

out of £1.9 million through a fake escort company.

And that money funded her love of designer shoes and bags.

Many of Claire Miller's shoes were over £600 new

and the auction hall is full of people

who have come for designer shoes at affordable prices.

We have brands such as Jimmy Choo, Prada and Louboutin

all being sold to the highest bidder with no reserve.

And Aidan has had to become an expert in top ladies fashion brands

as police now target designer gear,

because to fashion-conscious buyers,

a used pair of Jimmy Choos is still a pair of Jimmy Choos.

What we have now noticed is that the law enforcement agencies

have cottoned onto that, for want of a better phrase,

and they are seizing these items and giving them to us to sell.

So, now, rather than selling off one big ticket item,

we are going to see how much money they can raise

from auctioning off Claire Miller's entire designer wardrobe,

bought solely from proceeds of crime.

Let's see what the first lot goes for.

It's from the finest name in ladies' shoes.

Size number 38, cost new over £600, where are we on the Louboutins?

£50, I'm bid. Internet £50. And 75.

£100 seated. Gentleman's bid £100. It's in the hall.

130. 150 now.

At £150 seated. 160.

At £160 on the Louboutins once...

160 twice...

-Third and last...

-GAVEL BANGS

..sold online.

£160 for second-hand shoes might seem like a lot,

but the room is buzzing.

The proceeds of crime sale of Claire Miller's shoes is attracting

a host of bids online and in the auction hall.

Sold online. Thank you, online. It's great value.

£100 online.

At 100 bid. Online has them.

The shoes keep coming and going.

I'm selling at £100 online.

Bidders in the room are snaffling up the shoes.

I'm selling, at £100 online.

And she had a fortune in handbags too.

The Gucci black leather bag with chain.

This black Gucci bag is 700 quid new.

What does it sell for?

-GAVEL BANGS

-Sold online for 230.

£230.

The Roberto Cavalli bag, normally 1,000...

Selling at 150.

..sold for 150.

And this tote bag is usually a steep 2,300 quid...

-GAVEL BANGS

-Sold online.

..but it has just sold for almost a tenth of its cost price

at £300 and auctioneer Aidan is well aware that some bidders who walked

in to bid on one item

were hotfooting out with something else altogether.

When any couple or anyone comes along to an auction,

they'll always have in mind what they want to buy

and what we often find happens time and time again,

there has to be an underbidder, there has to be...

There is one winner, there's probably lots of losers

in an auction, so if someone turns up to buy an R8 sports car,

an RS3, and they've lost out, and they have their husband

or their wife alongside them, they will often turn their attention then

to something else and end up going home

with a pair of shoes or a watch.

And there is a couple in the hall who might fit the bill.

Nice, classic look, these ones. Where are we on the Louboutins?

Looking for 75. It's a £50. A bid in at £50.

It's with you, it's with 75. 100 against you. 125.

It's in the hall. Took the bid first in the hall at £125. At £125.

150 against you, 175.

At £175 once...

twice...

-third and last...

-GAVEL BANGS

..sold.

They bag themselves two pairs of Louboutins.

And they didn't even come for the shoes.

We actually came here today to look at the cars.

I was hoping he was going to buy me a new car for my birthday,

which is coming up very shortly.

But I get two new pairs of shoes instead,

which I'm absolutely delighted with. It is one of my favourite brands.

I have a couple of pairs already but it's coming near birthday time

so I got treated tonight to two new pairs.

A fantastic day at the auction.

We always enjoy coming here, you always get a good bargain.

We have saved a few pounds tonight and we have thoroughly

-enjoyed ourselves.

-Yeah.

-It's been good fun.

We've had our tea as well.

By the time all the luxury shoes and bags have been sold,

there's thousands of pounds made back

for the Proceeds of Crime kitty.

Much of that money will go to good causes

but the law doesn't stop there.

Claire Miller will now be subject to a financial reporting order

for the next ten years.

Whenever she spends money, the police will be watching her.

Even when criminals are behind bars,

they are still paying off their debt to society.

And when they come out, if they haven't cleared that debt,

the police will continue to hunt down their ill-gotten gains.