Alison Eaton's blog

Pay back time

Taking the cash out of crime…at Hove Crown Court my financial investigation team secured a £225 000 confiscation order from John Weaver. Weaver was initially sentenced to an 18 month prison sentence for cannabis cultivation over a year ago. 

He has to pay up within 6 months or go back to prison for two and a half years and still pay the confiscation order! He will have to sell his house.

Who says that crime pays. It is always good to make such an impact on the lifestyles of these criminals!

Good work by the ECU team!

Very quiet today as a lot of my colleagues in London on the march to protest about the 20% cuts to the police and the planned changes to our pay and conditions. Police are not allowed to strike so the planned march is the only way to express the anger felt. They are all off duty and have my support.

Thu 10 May 6:38PM

The hidden stash!

So who watches the crime drama “Scott and Bailey”?! I confess that I do…only because my son likes it!!!! Actually as detective dramas go, it is one of the most realistic, not bad at all. I am commenting on the police aspects not all the complications in their home lives!! The best bit is the female DCI, DCI Gill Murray, but I am no where near as bossy!! I like to see all the paper work and files they have on their desks, now that is so accurate!

Back to the day job: Drug dealing continues to be the bread and butter business of serious and organised crime groups and disrupting this global business is a top priority for me and the team. So to some excellent work by the SOCU - In September last year we stopped a car which was travelling into Brighton from London. The car was searched and 511 grams of cocaine was found hidden within a sophisticated hide behind the stereo unit. It had obviously been manufactured for the purpose of concealing the drugs. The driver, Spartak Rumano was arrested and after investigation Shpend Krasniqi was also arrested. They were both from London.

Last week both were sentenced at Lewes Crown for the offence of possession of a class ‘A’ drug (cocaine) with intent to supply. Rumano (born in Albania) was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment and Krasniqi (born in Bosnia) was sentenced to three years and three months imprisonment. He will be deported from the UK after he has served his prison sentence. 

As a result of this excellent SOCU investigation we prevented these illegal drugs from reaching the streets of Brighton and no doubt causing untold misery and harm in our communities.

So if this was ‘Scott and Bailey’ I would be taking the team down to the pub to celebrate the top result………

Sat 5 May 12:49PM

"back-office" team strike again

So what have my ‘back-office” team been up to ….

Well, the Money Laundering Team have just had a great result at Kingston Crown court. Following a 7 day trial, Tak Lok Fung was found guilty of six cases of Cannabis Production and money laundering. This was the result of a complex investigation by the team over 2 years. They discovered that Fung had been renting 5 properties in Littlehampton and Worthing and that he had converted them into Cannabis factories. On the face of it they were normal houses in residential streets. However, when the team executed the warrants they found professionally installed growing systems spread across the house from the kitchen up to the bedrooms, with a large amount of plants in each room. From one house the yield from the Cannabis plants was over £200 000!!

Fung was given a 3 year prison sentence at the Crown Court and we are still continuing to identify his full assets.Whilst it will hurt Fung to go to prison, it will hurt him far more to hit him in the pocket!

Cannabis Factories these days are much more likely to be residential premises rather than the large scale commercial and industrial sites of previous years. Hidden within or own communities. 

Cannabis is still the most used illegal drug in this country and there is no doubt that cannabis cultivation, especially on this scale, causes significant harm to all communities. Most cannabis used in this country is home grown by organised crime groups rather than imported. That is why we continue to target and disrupt these criminals to reduce the amount of drugs coming on to our streets, all this work from the so called “back-office”!

Another successful operation by my team resulted in four charges of conspiracy to supply both class A and B drugs, transferring a prohibited firearm and money laundering on a Sussex drugs dealer. He was remanded in custody and I therefore anticipate less drugs on the streets.

And so these great results continue from the back or is it middle office?!

Sun 29 Apr 7:07PM

The challenges of 2012

Already this year we have all felt the effects of some large national reforms which are having a significent impact on our pay and conditions as a result of the Winsor reports, and none of the changes are on our side. In fact, the financial impact is hitting us all hard. It certainly infuriates me even more to read the Daily Mail describing police officers as overpaid, fat and lazy with no right to challenge the erosion of our service. Police officers have not had the right to strike since 1919 because we are not employees, we swear allegiance to the Crown and police by the consent of the people. We also have a duty to act even when we are not on duty. However, for most of us, that is why we joined the police, loyalty and commitment at the heart of our work.

Police officer strength is reducing, nationally there are 6, 012 less officers (4.2%) compared to last year due to the cut in funding. Workforce morale is understandably affected by this and also the pay freeze, increment freeze, increase in pension contributions, Windsor changes and further proposals. 

Despite all this going on, our work continues at the same level. One example of the dedication of my team was the Thursday before the Easter weekend. Information came to me relating to criminality involving drugs and firearms and we needed to put together an operation, which could stretch into the holiday weekend. Family arrangements were changed at short notice so that we could work on this Organised Crime Group, to reduce the risk of harm in Sussex. This is what the public don’t see and the side of policing that never features in the Daily Mail!

Sun 22 Apr 8:43PM

A life without limits

These are the words of Chrissie Wellington, an inspiration to all females and certainly my idol and role model! She is a three times world ironman champion and destroys the field, men and women..but of course you already knew that?! We won’t mention “sports personality of the year” either! Why on earth was she not nominated?

So the link to my work…… ACC Pinkney arranged a meal to ‘celebrate success’ for those of us females that had been involved in the recent promotion procedures for Chief Inspector and Superintendent (in our own time and expense of course and why did I feel I had to say that?) Three of us were asked to speak about our preparation and what helped us succeed.   I shared the following thoughts taken from the mindset of Chrissie Wellington:

Ultimately never give up. You might not succeed at first but never stop trying. Just be patient and have faith in yourself and most of all enjoy the journey.

It worked for me! It was a great evening, allowing us all to share experiences and tales away from the confines of the police station so hope it will be an annual event.

Back to the office and to an outstanding conviction for my Major Fraud Team, a part of the Economic Crime Unit. The two defendants were husband and wife, Brian O’Brien and Lynne D’Albertson. They were found guilty this month of fraud related offences, including conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court. This case relates to what is called a “Boiler Room” fraud and involved the pair selling shares that were either excessively over priced or actually worthless. There were over 300 victims and about £4.4 million paid over by the victims. We are waiting for a date to be set for sentencing and of course cash confiscation proceeding are ongoing. For too long fraud has almost been seen as a victimless crime, but it is not and too often the victims are vulnerable. The work that has gone into this investigation is impressive, and has taken several years. Welldone to the team!

Sat 31 Mar 5:47PM

Taxi to prison please

The convictions keep on rolling in as a result of the hard work and commitment of the Serious Organised Crime Unit, a team I am proud to lead.

I certainly have not got room to mention them all on my blog but I will continue to highlight some of our operations. One that has impressed was the sentencing at the Old Bailey of four men this month to a total of 17 years in prison for conspiring to rob a post office van in Hove. 2 of the defendants were of no fixed address, one from Swansea and one from Worthing.They were planning to rob the van crew of £11 000 cash outside the Portland Road post office on a specific date last year. This was a nasty organised crime group and the success of the conviction was as a result of a long term covert operation. The meticulous investigation prior to this planned cash in transit robbery meant that our response to the crime was swift, measured and precise. 

It is all about identifying high harm individual gang members and their organised crime groups (OCGs), we focus on the OCGs that are causing the most harm to the public in Sussex, such as drug dealers, firearms suppliers, high value burglars, those that commit planned robberies and involved in kidnaps and predatory sex offenders…so plenty to do! Not meaning that Sussex is not a safe place to live of course, but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to ensure it remains safe!

Which brings me on to the question; “what is frontline”?  Are we back room or middle room officers? How ridiculous is all this and surely we can all understand that it is not all about “high visibility” policing on the streets?! There is of course a place for uniformed presence on the streets, but intelligence led policing and SOCU operations and tactics to disrupt these sophisticated organised gangs is at the forefront of 21st century policing. We will continue to disrupt them and lock them away from society from our back rooms!!

Mon 19 Mar 10:02AM

Crimestoppers Domestic Violence Launch

On Wednesday I went to the Crimestoppers launch for the domestic violence campaign. I had been involved with this project since the inception, working with Carolyn Randall, the CS area manager, Trish Harrison and DS Danny Dugan since October. It is always rewarding to see early concepts come to fruition

The launch was at the AMEX stadium in Brighton, overlooking the football pitch. A fitting venue for such a significant launch.

The most impressionable and unforgettable part of this launch for me was the presentation and video by Penny Beale. Penny is an inspiration, having suffered domestic abuse herself, then losing her only daughter due to a domestic murder, she now works tirelessly for the sake of future victims. 

Penny’s message and that of the whole Crimestoppers DV campaign is:

“BREAK THE SILENCE”   ”Call Crimestoppers if you know of someone who is being abused”  ”Don’t be a bystander”.

You can give the information anonymously on 0800 555 111

I would also say please do consider giving us, Sussex Police, a call on 101 or in an emergency 999.

I would also encourage you to visit Penny’s website on www.pennybealememorialfund.org and view her inspiring Youtube video.

Do what you can.

Fri 17 Feb 11:43AM

Collaboration in the Surrey Hills!

Police Officers and Police Staff, despite popular myth, do get on well together. The photo above shows me, building relationships with the Joint Command - the Surrey/Sussex collaborated departments_ out with Lou Whiteoak from the joint command Scientific Support Unit. We went mountain biking in the Surrey Hills on a mid week day off and here we are at the top of Holmbury Hill before we hit some of the trails on a cold but beautiful day!

As it turns out I am much more skilled than I thought as I managed to do most of the day without a rear brake! For those that know any of the trails, the one called “Yogurt Pots” was my favourite even without brakes. We will definitely be going there again and are now trying to synchronise more days off together in the name of collaboration! Training starts soon for the BHF London to Hove off road in September. Still trying to drum up more officers and staff from across Sussex Police to join Lou and I.

I had a half hour appointment that over ran to an hour with the Chief Constable last week. The Chief speaks individually to everyone that gets promoted which I think really values your personal achievement. We spoke about our values and the Sussex police leadership going forward to 2015, innovative ways of working to provide a better service despite our reductions.

I certainly won’t brag about West Brom beating Wolves 5-1 today, fancy having a Chief Constable that supports Wolves! 

Sun 12 Feb 8:00PM

The new job

I have now had just over four weeks in my new role as Detective Chief Inspector for Crime Operations, Headquarters CID and it seems to have flown by. It has been absolutely fantastic, I am so enjoying the job, just continually buzzing with the pace and operations. As I said in an earlier blog, we are so lucky in the police to have such variety. I have moved into a completely different role, away from paedophiles, rapists and domestic abusers to organised crime groups, robberies, high level drug supply and fraud! 

I now head up the Serious Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and the Economic Crime Unit (ECU). I have three excellent Detective Inspectors (2 do triathlons so just working on 3rd)! I have 10 Detective Sergeants, over 50 constables and over 15 police staff, so a big team. 

The ECU is split into a Major Fraud Unit, Money Laundering Investigation Team and a Financial Investigation Unit, and a lot of the work actually involves organised crime, so much more to tell you about this on later blogs.

In my first couple of weeks I went to Hove Crown Court for the sentencing of 4 defendants for conspiracy to supply cocaine. It was the end of an impressive investigation by the SOCU, involving criminals from West Sussex and Croydon. Two of the defendants were arrested in a car parked in Crawley. A package, pictured above, containing cocaine with a potential estimated street value of £450 00 when cut was seized. The team then arrested a further defendant in a car parked nearby and found £24 000 cash. This investigation resulted in the arrest of the ringleaders, courier and lower level drug dealers. There was no doubt that the cocaine, when cut, was destined for later distribution on to the streets of Sussex. This is just one example of how we dismantled an entire drugs distribution operation from initial couriers to the principal and his associates. These four were sentenced to a total of 24 years, and there is another two to sentence later in the month.

This is going to be a busy job!

Sun 5 Feb 7:34PM

First blog in 2012

Starting a new job with all the associated challenges has given me limited time to blog, couldn’t let my triathlon training slip and something had to give! 

Before I move my thoughts forward into 2012, I want to take some time to reflect back on 2011:

A year of astronomic changes in the police and we have only just started! “Austerity measures” the buzz words for politicians and leading police officers. I prefer to use the words “drastic cuts”! Government budget cuts for all police forces has had to result in staff reductions across our force. Our force introduced voluntary severance for police staff and compulsory retirement for police officers after they have served 30 years. It all seemed to happen so quickly, suddenly, almost over night, colleagues that had been there since I had joined the police, a constant within my police service, were gone. It was a very strange experience, a lot of good friends as well as colleagues just quietly slipping away. And you know what its like, you say “we must keep in touch” etc but we never do! I personally miss a lot of these people, ones that have assisted me through my career, others that had become trusted friends……..still, we have to move on and rebuild! 

A positive to all these challenges is the need to develop strong partnerships and collaborations with other agencies, other police forces and the public, being more innovative and devising different ways of working, exciting times I think! 

However, despite everything, 2011 is on my list of satisfying years both professionally and personally. I got tickets for the Olympics, mens 1500m final no less..leave embargo permitting! Both my children excelled in their respective A’levels and GCSEs, my daughter got a place at Bristol university and I got promoted, so a pretty good year for us. Sad to end 2011, but looking forward to 2012!

Sat 21 Jan 12:25PM