Episode 2 Ill Gotten Gains

When this 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.

On today's Ill Gotten Gains,

we follow police in Wales and the Midlands as they hunt for cash from

a drug deal.

And a gang smuggling a lethal cargo onto the streets of London discover

what it's like to be taken down by armed police and watch as their

prized asset is taken and sold at auction.

And money seized from criminals is making life for innocent people much

better. Cash taken from crooks in Manchester is helping to keep these

kids very busy indeed.

I enjoy spending that money, knowing where it's come from.

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 made 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 are seized by the police and sold to the

highest bidder.

Mick Beattie is one of the leading

proceeds of crime specialists in the UK.

It's his job to work out how much money criminals make and then seize

those ill-gotten gains.

Money laundering is one way crooks can clean dirty cash.

Money laundering has three layers - placement, layering and integration.

So you place it somewhere, then you disguise it,

and then you integrate it.

So I could be a drug dealer, and I've got tens of thousands of pounds a week coming in.

If I'm caught with that, I have no explanation,

so if I create a cash-rich business,

something like a car wash or a sunbed salon or something along those lines,

I could say, last week I had a bumper week,

and 1,000 people at £100 a time used my car wash.

I could then declare that as an income,

pay tax on it and get money back.

Some criminals work very hard to hide their money

from the prying eyes of the law.

But police have a special weapon in the fight to get criminal

cash back. Meet the specialist team of financial investigators who

follow the money and never give up.

In the early hours of the morning in Wales,

a large team of officers are preparing to carry out a series of

dawn raids. We can't show any of their faces because they all operate

under cover. They're here because financial investigators from

South Wales's Tarian police team

think they may have discovered a money-laundering operation.

They suspect a convicted drug dealer may have hidden nearly

£100,000 by giving it to accomplices to invest on his behalf.

So this morning, they plan to make multiple arrests.

When we get there today, there are a number of addresses, say,

in the Newport area. Police will initially attempt to make contact

with the occupiers by knocking the door.

Hopefully we'll get their attention, and they'll open the door,

and those persons will be arrested and the house will be searched.

Elite police financial investigators will be looking for any traces of

money, by going through any financial records they find.

They'll be looking for all sorts of documentation, potentially media,

-laptops.

-The suspected drug dealer's accomplices are not aware that THEY

are being investigated, so they're in for a surprise this morning.

Five addresses are being attended today.

It's fairly standard, because usually money-laundering

involves a number of people.

It's about a minute or so away, now.

Now a team of officers is in place at their suspect's address.

They will want to make a fast entry to ensure they can seize any

evidence that may tie the alleged drug money to the men.

With a large team of police at his door, the suspect decides

to open up. The financial investigation is on.

A warrant to search these premises.

The person's inside,

they've been spoken to by the police and officers

from the National Crime Agency.

That person is now under arrest,

and then the remaining officers will stay here and search his premises,

looking for items and evidence related to the investigation.

As the suspect is led away, the search can now begin.

The team now are going to be searching the premises for

documentation and other evidence in relation to the investigation.

We're looking for documentation regarding money laundering,

any large amounts of cash,

and also other items in relation to the offence.

The arrested man has already had all of his bank accounts frozen.

He can't access any cash he has without police approval.

Restraining orders have been put on his accounts,

so they're currently being restrained now, by the CPS.

Nearly 100 miles away in the Midlands,

and another team of financial investigators are about to visit

two more suspects in the money-laundering case.

Like the suspect in Wales,

the two Birmingham people they're after aren't expecting a visit from

the police.

We're assisting officers from Tarian,

the Welsh Regional Asset Recovery Team,

in a money-laundering investigation.

Two adults are supposed to be arrested, who are suspected of

being involved in a money-laundering offence off the back of the

drugs' trafficking conviction down in Wales.

We're looking for evidence in the form of receipts, documents,

property sales, bank statements,

any communications or any documents that will show their involvement.

This is the house where the two suspects live.

Police are hoping there might be some evidence inside

to prove their suspicions.

And one man inside has had to be taken away for questioning.

Now the financial investigators can move in,

and look for anything that will link these suspects to money laundering

for the drug dealer in Wales.

They're in there now, searching for the items we're looking for.

Inside, they have found a series of documents and other items they

suspect will hold vital clues to how the drug dealer's money was

-getting spent.

-So the search has gone to plan.

Lots of items of interest have been discovered and obtained,

two large boxes of material,

documents which will need to be sifted through and numerous documents,

bank statements and lots of communications that may or may not,

but hopefully may, relate to the offence that the Welsh lads,

the Welsh team are investigating.

We've conducted the search, there are two people in custody,

both are en route to a local police station and they will be interviewed

by the Welsh RART throughout the course of the day.

And, back in Wales,

the financial investigators are moving from the suspect's house,

-to his car.

-We've identified the fact that the suspect arrested from

the address has a vehicle.

As a result, we've obtained authority

to search the vehicle also.

And the same as the premises,

we're now looking for evidence of money laundering.

Financial investigators understand the devious hidden world that

criminals and their cash inhabit.

You can find almost anything,

but it's usually documentation,

which they'll have in their bank accounts,

hidden bank accounts that they've been using to launder the money through.

We usually find cash cards that they use in order to top up fees and

funds on, that they also use to hide the money.

It could be a variety of things.

Paying-in receipts.

Also, SIM cards that they use for their mobile phones because they use

several SIM cards in order to communicate with each other.

They try and live below the radar,

try and secure their money away in bank accounts.

But on days like today,

financial investigators throw a criminal's world into the spotlight,

and look for evidence of spending the proceeds of crime,

and they think they have something.

-Totally different address again. Supposedly living there.

-Yeah.

What's the connection with that address?

And hidden away in the car,

investigators think they've found some important information that

might help with the money-laundering investigation.

Later on, we'll see exactly what the team have found.

Arrested criminals will often have bundles of cash taken off them when

police suspect it's been made illegally.

But it's not just money the police can take,

as this group of heavyweight villains found out.

It all began after police in Kent tipped off the National Crime Agency

about a frightening gang in their area.

Police believe the gang were planning major criminal acts and

needed to be stopped. The NCA officer we spoke to is covert,

so has hidden his face to tell us the chilling details of the case as

-it unfolded.

-The Kent Police came to us as the National Crime Agency.

They had a basic intelligence picture around a criminal family.

They were known as the Shillings.

They were involved in the trafficking and importation of commodities,

and that could includes drugs and, in this day and age,

organised immigration crime.

So they were the threats and the concerns that Kent Police

-and ourselves had.

-27-year-old Harry Shilling was identified as the

kingpin of this organised crime group, known for importing and selling drugs,

with links to street gangs in London.

Harry Shilling did have a degree of sophistication and discipline.

So he had a criminal group where he was able to stand off and direct and

would utilise a trusted lieutenant to assist as a go-between.

He's lieutenant was 30-year-old Michael Defraine,

with lackeys Richard Rye,

David Payne and Christopher Owen making up the rest of the numbers.

So they'll have someone who is dedicated in relation to transport

or logistics. Someone who may handle the money for them.

Someone who will actually go hands-on the commodity and will

remain very disciplined in relation to their communication with each other as well.

Officers deployed a surveillance team to watch the gang as

they operated, but little did the NCA realise the men

they were watching were planning a deadly crime.

So in this case, the surveillance team are deployed on Harry Shilling

and unbeknown to him, the team are there covering his every move

and just recording his associations and what he's up to when we think

there's relevant days.

With a team of officers watching, nothing went unnoticed.

Evidence suggested the gang were planning something big.

Surveillance was ramped up when officers discovered they appeared to

be hatching a plan to buy a seaworthy boat - the Albernina.

There are operatives that were in public houses that they'd frequent.

Some of the operatives were able to watch them when they were using

their smartphones and they were actually looking at marine sites and

actually looking at the Albernina for sale.

It was quite apparent then that they were now all engaged in a criminal venture.

So we focused much of our activities then on the movement of that boat.

The boat was staked out 24/7 to find out exactly what was going on.

What we started to see unfold,

it was obvious that something was going to be trafficked and from the

assessments we made of that intelligence,

it was very likely to include the trafficking of firearms.

Intelligence the NCA had on the source and route of the weapons had

led them to believe these were no ordinary guns,

but instead mass-casualty hardware,

which, in the wrong hands, could have devastating consequences.

This is a Czechoslovakian vz61 Scorpion.

This was initially designed as a gun

to protect someone from armed attack,

but obviously by very definition,

it can be used in an armed attack

-as well.

-Out of all the machine guns on the market, the Scorpion is the

easiest to use and for a gang looking to assert its presence,

an ideal weapon.

This is extremely controllable.

This is designed to put the rounds practically in the same hole.

So it's extremely devastating.

Whereas you might be hit with one or two 9mm bullets,

if you're hit with five or six of these,

your chances of living are very slim.

On the 9th August, activities around the boat picked up.

And it was clear something big was about to take place.

We could see that David Payne was preparing for a trip and so we

developed our surveillance strategies around what control could we have of that boat,

if any, and what preparation can we make for its return?

We looked out to the Border Force to give us some assistance, really,

of putting plans in place for tracking that boat as it departed the UK

and then give us an early alert as and when it was returning.

With Shilling, Defraine and Rye

staying on dry land to monitor

proceedings, Payne and Owen steered

the boat out of the harbour on the

9th of August 2015,

none the wiser of the welcoming party they would be returning to.

By the 10th August, we're aware that it's now returning,

so with our own surveillance teams we look to shadow its movements...

..and it initially arrives back at Rochester.

So with the surveillance team we can then keep control of David Payne and

see what's going to happen with the commodity we now believe is on that yacht.

Officers on the ground watched as a van pulled up beside the boat and

David Payne and Christopher Owen began to move suitcases inside.

Our officers on the ground are reporting the movements and activity

around that boat, which then continues to build our suspicion that they are now

ready to move a commodity that is on board.

With those individuals using blue rubber gloves,

their activity on the boat was quite excited.

Waiting for the van to leave the scene,

armed officers could now make their move.

Not knowing if there were more weapons inside,

they quietly crept up to take down those inside.

They've got to be able to react to anything that now comes out.

On this occasion, we can see the guys are coming out showing their

hands and they are compliant. If you imagine what's going through the

firearms officers' minds when they first approach that yacht,

knowing that it's trafficked firearms to the UK.

With half of the gang arrested, the team further down the road were in

hot pursuit of a van full of firearms,

now being driven by David Payne and about to enter a main road in the

United Kingdom.

He had to be dealt with very quickly and very safely before he reached

the main road. David Payne was arrested in the driving seat of the

van just before it entered the main road and in the back were the cases.

And in relation to Mr Payne,

as soon as he was arrested and saw the police there,

he explained straightaway there were guns in the back of the vehicle.

After catching Payne red-handed,

the officers recovered the firearms

and discovered the sheer quantity of what the gang had been trafficking.

Inside the bags were 22 assault rifles and nine machine pistols,

worth over £100,000.

From an initial check of what's in those bags

at the scene of the arrest,

officers reported back to us that they were assault weapons and

machine pistols. The devastating firepower they would have on the UK

and the criminal market, you know, is catastrophic.

With the firearms seized and some of the gang in custody,

there were still three men on the loose.

Defraine, Rye and possibly the most dangerous of them all - Shilling.

Intelligence tracked the men down to the nearest DIY store, where they

were buying tools to bury the weapons.

So here you can see them purchasing what we're saying is a burial kit

for the weapons that they've just trafficked.

You can see they've got shovels,

they buy a pickaxe and other items, ready to bury these weapons.

Those bottles contain ammonia.

It's our case that they would've used ammonia when they buried

the weapons, to put off any tracking dogs' scents,

but also maybe they feel they could've forensically cleaned the

weapons with them as well.

Despite the gang's best efforts to hide all evidence,

forces were onto them and waiting by their vehicle for their return.

The force of the take-down takes Shilling by surprise.

He's actually shocked,

so they've taken medical attention to him straightaway.

Let your heart rate settle down and you'll be fine.

Once we're there, we're there in numbers and we're there with

safe tactics and it's that shock and awe that gives us the advantage,

really, over the people who we're targeting.

But one man escapes - Richard Rye.

He was spotted sitting inside a nearby McDonald's with families just

a few yards away, holding a suspicious-looking box.

With no idea what was inside the box, officers were on high alert.

This CCTV footage shows what happens next.

Rye looks agitated inside the restaurant as he frantically tries

to contact the other members of the gang.

He doesn't realise that the man nearest to him

is an armed policeman.

The officer who's just walked through the shop there is one of our

surveillance officers. He's looking at Richard Rye.

He's deciding what action to take.

As Rye goes to leave the restaurant, the armed officer has to act.

He's not prepared to let him move any further with that box, that

unknown item, so he takes control.

And then two other colleagues come and assist.

Having safely secured the arrests of each of the gang,

shocking messages later found on mobile phones

show exactly what they had planned

and just how menacing these criminals were,

proving vital evidence in their eventual downfall.

So Shilling starts off the message to Defraine saying...

And Defraine replies...

Shilling replies...

Defraine says...

And Shilling concludes...

You know, that's quite a chilling message and gives a clear indication

of their attitude towards

what they've just trafficked over to the UK.

Despite Shilling and Defraine brazenly pleading not guilty,

the evidence was stacked up against them

and the jury delivered a guilty verdict.

Christopher Owen was jailed for five years,

David Payne and Richard Rye for 14 years each.

Michael Defraine for 27 years and

Harry Shilling for 30 years behind bars.

If you look at that comment of...

That's something that they're saying to each other in the context of

having access to the controlled drugs that they are supplying and

now having access to mass-casualty weapons to enforce that enterprise.

So it is particularly worrying...

..but in this case, we were able to display that to the court direct and

they've been dealt with appropriately.

Now behind bars,

forces punished them even more by seizing and selling everything they

illegally owned, starting with the boat.

And in a double blow,

financial investigators will make sure any profits will go straight

into the public purse, rather than into the hands of these

cold-blooded criminals.

Historically, criminals would look at a criminal conviction,

look at a custodial sentence

and would just suck that up and get on with the sentence

and come out and carry on.

With the Proceeds of Crime now, it gives that double jeopardy.

Because of the overall value of this crime,

he will have that hanging over his head and will have to pay what the

courts direct in relation to Proceeds of Crime hearings.

Later on, we'll discover how much this boat, which was used to smuggle

the guns, can fetch at auction,

as the NCA now begin to claw back the proceeds of crime.

Most hardened criminals would rather go to jail than have their most

precious possessions taken away,

and it was no different for this dodgy car dealer when he left a

trail of unhappy customers in his wake.

He tried to give Trading Standards the run-around,

but instead ended up getting his own fingers burnt.

Sometimes, even minor complaints can scratch the surface of a

major criminal operation, as Colin and Sue Romford

from Trading Standards regional scam-buster team at York found out.

As a result of one investigation,

these two ended up bringing down one of the UK's biggest fraudsters.

It all started with a simple complaint.

We had a referral from the regional Trading Standards group.

And it was in relation to a car dealer.

And the person operating the company was Kirk Claus.

These were just a few of the complaints that we investigated when

we started to look into the matter.

Claus was running a company selling dodgy motors - on a massive scale.

The vehicles he was selling were near undriveable,

badly damaged and in some cases, written off.

He was operating the garage as a complete scam.

There were times when people would take their vehicles in for Claus to

sell and then they'd never see the vehicles again,

they'd just vanish. If he liked them, he'd just take them.

Claus and his cronies' business practices left a lot to be desired.

Customers scammed out of their hard-earned cash were becoming

increasingly distressed. And the cars he was selling to people

were riddled with faults.

Some of the cars were at the cheaper end of the market, two grand.

But the ones we looked at on the internet were anything up to £50,000.

Some of the people who were buying £2,000, £3,000 vehicles,

it was a very important purchase for them,

they could ill afford to lose the money.

When they went back to complain,

Claus and his group intimidated them,

so there was quite a few of the consumers who just left the site,

-because they were frightened.

-One of his customers was Gary,

who had the misfortune of spending £10,000 buying a car from Kirk Claus

and wound up taking his life in his own hands

just to get home in one piece.

He can still remember the moment he pitched up at Claus's showroom to

take a look at the car he wanted.

So I arrived at the garage and walked in,

and the first thing I thought was, there's a lot of people there.

There was probably seven, eight,

nine men standing around in the offices, as well.

And I stood in the forecourt, no-one came out.

I had to then walk through the forecourt into this big shed.

Walked into the office and again, there was no customer service,

so you kind of think, the cars must sell themselves.

In the back of my head, that's what I was thinking,

the cars must sell themselves.

There wasn't a guy in a suit,

there wasn't anyone dressed particularly smart.

Gary already had his eye on a car he'd spotted online.

He took it for a test drive and, noticing a few niggles,

haggled the price down before handing over his hard-earned cash

and embarking on the long trip home.

But a few hours in, something wasn't right.

Driving down the M1 from Halifax down to London,

and all of a sudden a light comes on the dashboard,

the whole car swerves to the left, loses power.

You're just, like, this isn't happening to me.

This just isn't right.

Pulled over on the hard shoulder, called up the services

whilst on the phone, waiting about five minutes on the phone.

Hit the ignition again, it seemed to be OK.

Limped it back down to London at 50mph.

It was very scary, but I just had to get home.

Yeah, just had to get home, that's all I wanted,

I was upset at that point, and just wanted to get home.

When he finally made it, Gary sought specialist help.

I booked it into my local garage, that I've been using for years.

Explained the problem.

They then said, "Just drop it in, we'll take a look at it."

I got a phone call a couple of hours later just saying,

"This car needs a new engine."

And at that point, I was absolutely devastated.

And it was from then onwards that the nightmare really started.

The garage came back to me with their quote

for them to do it of £3,500.

I shopped around on the internet and found a company that would do it for

2,500, which was a complete, brand-new engine in the car.

I was just devastated - for buying a second-hand car,

you don't expect that kind of expenditure

in the first couple of weeks.

Understandably, Gary chased Kirk Claus about the faulty car.

He wanted a refund, or to have the engine paid for.

But the car dealer gave him the run-around.

I was ringing the garage at least three or four times a day,

asking for Kirk Claus.

I knew it was him that was picking up, he would then say, "No, sorry,

"he's not in. What do you want?

"I'll see if he's around, I'll get him to call you back."

Never received a call back.

Now I can laugh, but at the time,

I was so angry because you know who you're talking to and you know

you're getting fobbed off.

Kirk Claus never called back, but in time,

Gary did get a phone call from Trading Standards.

They told him they had swooped on Kirk Claus's empire and were seizing

many of his vehicles.

And now the crime-fighting couple

started to dig into Claus's finances.

What they were about to find was criminal activity on a huge scale.

And later, we'll see how the crime-fighting sleuths

discovered the secrets

of Kirk Claus's ill-gotten gains.

Every year, the police succeed in clawing back millions of pounds that

crooks in their region have made illegally.

And where does it go?

Well, some ends up being given to schemes like this one.

A few miles south-east of Manchester city centre lies Gorton,

once a thriving industrial hub.

When the factory doors shut in the '60s, it became plagued with crime.

Nick Buckley grew up not far from the area and witnessed

antisocial behaviour on a daily basis within his community.

Gorton has had its issues over the last couple of decades.

Crime has been one of them.

Gang activity was another.

The police and the council have really got to grips with a lot of

that now. What we're left with now in the area is low-level

-antisocial behaviour.

-Nick spent nearly ten years working for the

council as a community safety officer,

before falling victim to government cuts.

The day of the riots in Manchester city centre,

that was the day I realised my job

for the council was going due to the cuts and the austerity measures.

And I'm looking out of the window at the riots,

looking at young people making really poor decisions for the city,

but also for their lives, and I thought to myself,

we need to do a lot more with young people,

a lot more prevention and early-intervention work,

rather than waiting until they've made big mistakes and locking them

up and taking just enforcement action.

Undeterred, Nick took his redundancy pay-out and invested the money into

setting up a charity to help steer these teenagers away from a

-life of crime.

-So I decided to hand in my papers,

take voluntary redundancy,

and I used that money to set up a registered charity called Mancunian Way.

And we're all about prevention and early intervention.

With a lack of funding from the council, the charity was just getting by.

But Nick had bigger ambitions.

I've obviously never run a charity before.

When I first started, I had no idea how to set a charity up.

And the first six months was really, really difficult.

My redundancy was almost running out.

We couldn't get any money in.

So the work we were doing in Gorton at the beginning was all street-based,

which means my staff would go out on a Friday, Saturday evening,

engage young people on the street, in the parks,

have a chat with them, offer advice and guidance.

And the common thing they kept telling us was,

"We need a youth club, we need somewhere to go."

And that's when we saw the police authority's grant,

which is all funded by the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Desperate to find a way to raise the cash to set up a youth club,

Nick found what he was looking for in the unlikeliest of places.

Through cash seized from criminals.

We got 5, 6, £700.

And we used that money to buy the initial equipment

for the youth club. And it's over two years old now.

It runs for four hours on a Friday evening.

And a normal Friday is attracting 60, 70 young people to the session.

And that wouldn't have started without that little bit of money at

the beginning to get things going.

The club became a real focal point for children.

And engaging them in activities proved to be a big hit with parents

-as well.

-We do all sorts at this youth club.

Every week, we're doing something different.

So today we're going to do a cooking session.

We've got some PlayStations going,

we've got our local police officers down there,

they'll be playing pool and table tennis. And in a bit, we've got a sports coach,

who'll be doing some sport sessions.

While they are here, that's when my staff are engaging with them and

trying to educate them on social issues, seeing what issues they've got at home,

seeing if they need advice on careers.

So a little money can have a big impact, if you spend it correctly.

We play football, we play volleyball, basketball, every game.

It is a fun place in here, that's why I come here.

I've learnt how to bake a cake very well now.

It gives you aspiration about what you want to be in the future.

If they didn't have somewhere like this to go to, it would be,

you know, out on the street.

They're definitely out getting in trouble or being noisy,

or just not having anywhere to go.

You walk through the neighbourhood around here and it's kids

-hanging out on the street.

-Criminals destroy communities

and destroy individual lives.

And when we take their money back off them,

and I get to spend it to improve

the lives of young people in those communities,

it's the best money I ever spend.

Seizing criminals' assets is an important way of showing communities

up and down the country that crime doesn't pay.

But those involved in criminal activities will often try to hide

their assets, and it is down to the financial investigators to uncover

the money trail.

Earlier on, we saw financial investigators in Wales make an

arrest of a man suspected of money-laundering offences.

They have frozen his bank accounts and searched his house for details

of anything he's bought.

And hidden away in his car,

the investigators think this document is proof of how the money

-might be laundered.

-Totally different address again.

-Yeah.

Someone is living there.

What's the connection with that address?

What we've got here is a land registry charge notice for a separate address

within the area. Yet it's actually addressed to the property that we

are currently searching.

One of the ways money laundering works is through property,

they would buy various amounts of property.

The document shows a property has been bought and officers suspect it

was paid for by the drug dealer's money.

The property that was purchased is this property here,

and the property was purchased for £90,000.

There's going to be enquiries made by the investigation team

in relation to that.

But that's the centre of the enquiry, really.

This is important work that will need to be carried out by the

financial investigators to work out where the money has gone.

And whilst the first search was happening,

more financial investigators have been going through a property

down the road that is linked to their suspect.

They too believe they've found evidence of someone

-making money illegally.

-Basically,

what we've recovered at the premises at the moment,

-just go through it.

-What we've got, we've got a...

quantity of cash that was found in brown envelopes in a safe upstairs.

A Nike bag, which we estimate has got about £2,000 in cash.

And two bundles of cash with approximately £1,000 in each bag,

which was also found

in a hat box on the floor of the top room.

So these will be seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The search has turned up much evidence

the police want to investigate further.

Who knows what secrets will be uncovered from inside these bags?

A number of computers to be examined.

There is approximately £5,000 in cash, a number of diaries,

phones and things.

And financial documents for us to go through.

And after a busy morning,

the Tarian team have three people in custody and a large amount of their

suspect's financial history in the boot of their car.

The task for the investigators now is simple -

if the house was bought with criminal money,

it will be seized and sold off.

And if it's come from the proceeds of crime,

the money will be put back into the public purse.

Earlier, we saw how Trading Standards sleuths Colin and Sue Romford

had been contacted by customers

who had been duped by second-hand car dealer Kirk Claus.

So they decided to take a closer look at his finances, and,

as so often happens when financial investigators follow the money,

they find a link to crime.

It turns out Claus wasn't paying a penny in tax,

but where was he hiding his ill-gotten gains?

We applied for a warrant to visit the premises,

to basically seize business documentation and inspect what was

on the premises, to push the investigation forward.

Colin and Sue knew he must have had something hidden somewhere.

So like a pair of bloodhounds,

they investigated every property Claus had links to and soon made

a massive discovery.

It was so remarkable, they got their cameras out and filmed it.

There was a large barn and it was full of high-value vehicles,

from Rolls-Royce to Bentleys, Dodge cars to American cars.

Once we looked at them, we knew they were worth a lot of money.

Finding the cars proved that Kirk Claus had major assets.

And when he went to court over his dodgy business practices,

he was charged with conspiring to defraud customers

and money-laundering offences

and sentenced to three years in jail.

During the trial,

some of the victims were brave enough to come forward and

testify against Claus. One of these was Gary,

who had paid £10,000 for a dodgy car

that clapped out the day he bought it.

As soon as I heard he was in trouble,

and as soon as Trading Standards called me up,

I wanted to do whatever I could to help.

Make this man face justice for what he had done to me and to others.

The courtroom was interesting

because they were trialling, I believe,

eight people at one time.

With Kirk being the ringleader and seven of his accomplices, and...

..they were still intimidating,

they didn't look guilty for anything they had done,

they just stared coldly at you.

And you're telling... You're telling your story.

And I don't know if they listened or not.

I would like to think they listened

and I'd like to think they felt

some sort of remorse, but I doubt it.

After the trial, the judge ordered Claus to repay over £1 million

he'd made illegally. He was stubbornly refusing to pay up.

So Colin and Sue again went in search

for any assets Claus was hiding.

Claus had been renting a storage unit some miles away, to hide

his assets from the authorities.

But there was no hiding from these officers.

Like a dog with a bone,

they weren't going to give up until they'd got their hands on all of

his assets.

This is it, in front of you.

We then went into the premises and it was just total shock.

I just couldn't believe

what we were looking at.

There was drag cars, there was Rolls-Royces,

there were some absolutely amazing vehicles that were all parked,

it was full. And for at least 20 minutes, we just walked around,

viewing the vehicles in a little bit of a shock, really.

They were transporting vehicles all night,

right until 11 o'clock the following day, because there were so many.

We actually stayed overnight,

we took it in turns to get some shut-eye.

Claus had made a blunder in trying to outsmart these two unassuming

Trading Standards officers.

And now he was paying the price by losing everything.

In terms of the seizure, this was a one-off for us.

We've never before or since seized this sort of value of cars.

By the time we finished this investigation, with the police and ourselves

seizing various vehicles, we'd actually accumulated 115 vehicles,

which was quite something, really, we think.

The 115 vehicles seized from Claus went on to be sold at auction,

raising just under £1 million -

some of which went back to customers he'd ripped off.

Knowing now he had a huge lock-up of cars and motorbikes hidden away,

makes me feel sick. Because he hasn't earned that money,

he's stolen that off people.

And he's lived a good life stealing off people.

It just... It makes me sick.

I think it's fantastic

that the police have the power to take assets,

that these guys have not earned,

away from them,

and to sell them and to give it back to the people that they've hurt

-along their journeys.

-Investigators from West Yorkshire Police

analysed Claus's activities.

They calculated Claus had made an astonishing £15 million

over the years, and he still has £6.5 million somewhere.

And the police won't stop looking for it.

Claus seems to think he can run away from this,

but this is a debt for life.

So once he served his sentence, we'll be waiting for him,

and we won't take our eye off this.

Kirk Claus has been given additional jail time because he still hasn't

paid back the money.

It just goes to show, when it comes to proceeds of crime,

he'll continue to be punished until the debt has been paid off.

Earlier on, we saw how the National Crime Agency put a gang of

Kent criminals under 24-hour surveillance.

Police watched the gang's every move as they searched for and then bought

themselves this boat, the Albernina.

The National Crime Agency officers sensed the gang were planning

something major and put the Albernina boat under constant surveillance.

The gang finally sailed away in their boat

and made the trip to Europe.

Officers realised what they were doing was buying guns, and once unloaded,

those guns were to be sold on the streets of London.

Armed police swooped on the gang members at the boat.

But gang leader Harry Shilling had already left.

He was arrested at a DIY superstore.

And the final gang member was taken down in McDonald's.

All that remains of the scam is the boat the gang used,

and now that's due to be sold off here

at the proceeds of crime auction.

Auction manager Aidan Larkin is ready to get the sale under way.

So who will kick things off for lot number 45, the Albernina?

It is here to be sold with no reserve.

5,000 straight in. A bid of £5,000.

At £5,000.

It's a steal at that. At 5,000.

And six. Bidding at £6,000.

At £9,000.

It is with the online bidder at £9,000.

Bid in at £10,000.

£10,000 is a good price for the boat,

-but Aidan thinks he can get more.

-It's with the online bidder.

11. It's at £11,000.

We've got three bidders, two different, I can see.

£12,000 now.

That's cheap at £12,000.

These things retail at 30,000 at least.

At £13,000...

The gun-running past of this yacht

doesn't seem to be slowing down the bids for Albernina.

13,500, thank you. At 13,500.

At 13,500, once.

14,000.

At 14,000, you're testing me.

At £14,000. 14,750.

At 14,750.

Bid at 14,750, once,

14,750 twice...

Third and last. Sold online.

Well done, that's £14,750 on the Albernina.

Well, given the fact that this thing is over 35 years old,

and it's been rummaged and been

taken through by the government agencies

and searched thoroughly, the fact that it achieved, I think,

possibly £14,000 at auction is a great price,

we're very happy with that.

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.