Alison Eaton

Tuesday 19 February 08:07

We have locked up another Organised Crime Group.

The gang of five males was involved in a fraud of over 2 million pounds stolen from Sussex University. The gang members were sentenced to a total of 16 years 7 months in prison, which is as a result of a 2-year joint investigation by our Money Laundering Team and the East Midlands Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART).

During the latter part of 2010 Sussex University was having new student accommodation being built. The work was being undertaken by a Manchester based construction company and involved a multi million pound contract. Payment was sent via an electronic transfer on a monthly basis.

However, when the university received a forged invoice they subsequently made a payment of over 2 million pounds into bank accounts controlled by Gurdip Singh from Leicester. Singh had set up a false construction business in the name of Balecourt Ltd. The university believed they were paying the Manchester Construction Company.

There is no doubt that Singh was the principle member of this organized Crime Group, but also involved in the crime were Singh’s business partner Hamel Bakrania from Leicester, Dennis Francis from Loughborough, Ohazurume from London and Andrew Wormstone, a Leeds based solicitor.

It was not until the Manchester firm queried the lack of payments from the university that the fraud was discovered and the lengthy investigation codenamed Court and convicted earlier this month.Operation Theta, commenced.

Singh pleaded guilty on 4^th December 2012, but his four co-accused denied being involved in the fraud and money laundering crimes. They were tried at Leicester Crown

Another great result for DS Mick Richards and DC Nigel Tillings. Through their hard work and effective partnership with the East Midlands RART, a highly orgainised national criminal operation has been smashed and the main members of the group now serving substantial prison sentences. Time for a well deserved drink!

Wednesday 13 February 18:17

Direct Entry: You cannot be serious!

We in the police are facing many new challenges at the moment and there still remains that air of uncertainty.  However, what is constant and not changing at all is the criminals committing crimes and a lot of the crimes remain the same, theft, burglary, drug supply, assaults of varying degree to name a few. Some criminals (not all) are also getting more sophisticated and I see this in the work of my teams in fraud, cyber-crime and other organized crime methodology. We therefore need an experienced and skilled police force to tackle all these types of criminals.

My point: experience and skill is developed and learnt and police leaders are promoted through the ranks, enhancing their knowledge as they go. This is British policing.

How will direct recruitment to superintendent achieve this? You cannot replace accumulated knowledge of policing, both frontline and detective; no training can replace first hand operational experience and understanding.

Promotion is getting harder to achieve and due to the reduced senior ranks, so competitive. Our morale will be dented further if most of these cherished posts are given to the direct entry banker, supermarket manager, company director, etc.!!

In a recent Policy Exchange report – ‘Policing 2020: policing in next 10 years’ I noticed the proposal to set up Citizen Police Academies to train the public on how to play their part in the fight against crime! There will be courses on how to citizen arrest safely and how to avoid danger……hmmmm!!! Any takers?!  

Friday 25 January 19:07

Domestic Homicide Reviews

I went up to the Home Office yesterday as I sit on the multi-agency National Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) Quality Assurance Panel. The reason I am involved in this is because a couple of years ago I had a four month secondment working in the Home Office to produce the National DHR guidance. An amazing opportunity, working with such a variety of agencies, bringing us all together for the one purpose of learning the lessons from domestic homicides so we can better safeguard and protect victims.

DHRs are about improving the way in which we work both individually and collectively as organisations. Establishing if there are lessons that could be learnt form the case, how they will be acted on and what is expected to change as a result.

It is important to remember that domestic violence is often repeated by the perpetrator and the violence also escalates over time. A domestic violence incident, which results in the death of the victim are very rarely a first attack. Many people and agencies may have known of these attacks, including psychological and emotional abuse; neighbors, family, GPs, housing, hospitals, police to name a few. Where there missed opportunities and can we all learn to help prevent these awful crimes?

Back to yesterday, freezing train and even colder meeting room at the Home Office. I think they are saving money by turning their heating down!

As a QA panel, we are both statutory and voluntary agencies and victim family representatives, chaired by the Home Office. We assess report standards across the country as well as identify good and poor practice and training needs. We went through seven completed reviews, all from different parts of the country. All horrific crimes, involving violent murders and some in front of young children.

You really have to be made of stern stuff not to let it affect you too much and that comes from over 20 years in the police! Reading about the sad lives that some have endured and their sudden brutal deaths is difficult but I just stay focused on the job, knowing that what we do will help prevent future domestic murders.

Friday 11 January 13:08

Award for Major Fraud Team

The Deputy Chief Constable presented an Outstanding Investigator Award to our hard working Major Fraud Team at our Awards Ceremony on Wednesday. 

Chris Neilson (ECU DI) and myself put forward our Major Fraud Team as often their work goes on unnoticed and we thought it was about time to promote and acknowledge their commitment and expertise. 

The Team, led by DS Sally Smith has undertaken a series of complex fraud investigations involving significant financial loss to many victims due to highly organsied criminal activity across national and international law enforcement jurisdiction.

I have previously mentioned some of these excellent investigations; they include Peckover, Greening and Roberts.

You cannot underestimate the work and detail that goes into these cases, but the results speak for themselves-

The Team has convicted 23 defendants of fraud offences totaling in excess of £10 million over the last 18 months…….. beat that visible policing on the beat!!

When you measure dedication and commitment to the job, well, Detective Constable James Whiley missed our ECU Christmas meal to see Gary Roberts convicted and sentenced to 4 ½ years at Chichester Crown Court! (And what a good meal he missed…. not wanting to rub it in!)

Roberts had not only repeatedly defrauded financial institutes in excess of £350 000 by opening accounts with fake identification, pretending to be a successful businessman, but he also befriended vulnerable women to get money from them. He had 44 separate bank accounts.

It is always important to take time out to appreciate hard work and such amazing results from a small team of 5 detectives.

Well done to Sally, James, Des, Dave and Val.

Saturday 29 December 12:13

Christmas Cheer

As we follow through the Alastair Stewart case, I wanted to share this email with you as it epitomises the positive effects our work can have for victims of crime. I have said many times previously, this is the most rewarding part of our job.

Victims are at the heart of our work and cases like this make the years of difficult and often frustrating investigations worth it! 

It is not just about ‘locking away’ the criminals but also supporting their victims, helping them put the crimes behind them and improving their lives.

DS Mick Richards called Nina from court on 19^th December to tell her the result -  Stewart was going to prison for 5 ½ years.

Hi Mick & Nicola,

Just wanted to say I had such a wonderful day after you called on the 19th. I took my daughter swimming, we baked gingerbread, and there were lots of kids over and activities and it was just a really great day.

I also slept better than I had in a long long time that night, and the fear I was still harbouring has totally dissipated.

Can’t thank you enough again for a job incredibly well done! I am truly grateful for every step. I know you have many other cases and the job isn’t over but I hope you get some well-deserved downtime over Christmas and New Year’s

Warmest regards and Happy Holidays to you and yours! 

Nina

Thursday 20 December 20:19

The Voice of a Victim

Following on from my blog on 28^th November about the successful conclusion to a 2-year fraud investigation, Alastair Stewart, 53yrs, from Burgess Hill was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison at the Old Bailey yesterday, despite credit for a guilty plea.

Stewart had posed as a wealthy businessman and financier and conned over £650 000 from Nina Siegenthaler out in the Turks & Caicos Islands. She fell for his charms and persuasive nature and allowed him to supposedly invest her savings, which he actually spent on living a life of luxury.

Stewart caused Nina, the victim, immense psychological as well as financial harm

Nina could not bring herself to come to court in the end but gave us her victim personal statement through this video blog. She wanted her ordeal to be a warning to others. She describes how violated she felt and how Stewart had turned her life upside down by his lies and deceit.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RBFjOBY9OI  

There were four other victims who were in the process of being conned by Stewart in a similar way and they were at court with DS Mick Richards to see the sentencing.

Without victims like Nina coming forward and helping us with our investigation and prosecution we would not be able to convict such predatory criminals like Stewart. Nina has helped us remove him from society and stop him moving on to his next victim.

DS Mick Richards and DC Nicola Balkham have both worked hard on this investigation and I know that the most important aspect for them was helping Nina see justice done so she can move forward in her life. 

Tuesday 18 December 09:06

Soft Drugs – Hard Crime

Organised cannabis cultivation was one a fairly small-scale form of criminal behaviour, but has become a tough criminal world of extremely large profits and low risks for the criminals.

We need to deal with the organisations behind cannabis cultivation. 

We arranged some training around drug investigations a few weeks ago. I am a strong advocate of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for all areas of policing. As the criminals get more sophisticated, so must we!

In our training day we considered the equipment needed to set up a factory, which includes lights, filtration systems, timers, temperature controls, cooling fans……sounds like I am giving a lesson on how to start your own cannabis cultivation factory!!

During the day we studied the different types of plants and looked at the growth stages, from seed to a mature plant in only 12 weeks.

We examined how ‘the grows’ are cropped and dried and how the resin is produced. A fascinating day and now my team are extremely well prepared to dismantle a factory, obtain the necessary evidence, identify the offenders and successfully prosecute.

Wednesday 12 December 21:34

They thought it was all over...........it is now!

They thought that it was all over (when they were sent to prison)..……well it is now after the final Proceeds of Crime (POCA) hearing at Birmingham Crown Court 2 weeks ago, where the six main defendants had more than a quarter of a million pounds of their criminal assets confiscated as a result of an extremely complex and detailed confiscation investigation.

My team of Financial Investigators work very closely with CPS and the Courts to hit the defendants in the pocket. Our work is to take the profit out of crime and to ensure that the crime does not pay!

Asif Khan, Mohsin Raja, Nazir Ahmed, Imran Rafiq, Daniel Myers and Shouel Karim were part of an organized crime group from Crawley involved in a major drug distribution network. They were all successfully convicted last year after a long focused operation and sentenced to a total of 37 years in prison between them for conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

However, our work did not stop there. A determined financial investigation and contested confiscation applications continued over the following year and resulted in 6 confiscation orders totalling £252 466.21

These Confiscation Orders are a great tool to strip offenders of their assets. The criminals’ money is then ploughed back into the fight against drugs. The orders make the offenders pay back the cash equivalent of their benefit from the crime, sometimes meaning they have to sell off their homes, cars and other luxury items such as jewellery, acquired through a criminal lifestyle..….such rewarding work for us!!

We will shortly be looking for suitable community projects or initiates to fund by using the confiscated money, a proportion of which is returned to us by the Home Office. 

Friday 7 December 17:39

Detention or Prevention

The story of our success with Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPO) is told through my blogs in July and 23^rd October and today……..

These SCPOs are preventative, restrictive and disruptive tools that we are using to help us monitor persistent and serious organized criminals. The conditions we put in the orders do restrict a person’s life but they are proportionate and necessary to help us in preventing continued criminal activity by the subjects.

Our implementation of these orders in Sussex is demonstrated through the case of Alasatir (now William) Peckover, a 23 year old from Crawley. 

Peckover took only a few months to breach his SCPO and was sentenced at Brighton Crown Court on 29^th November to three years in prison, more than his original sentence. This was his fourth conviction in just over four years of complex Internet based hacking frauds, using different identities and defrauding individual people as well as companies.

At the court Judge Tanzer said  “I believe that I will see you again in the future due to your gambling addiction and the temptation to use your computer skills to cheat which will be hard to resist due to your character”.

So off Peckover goes to prison yet again and will the Judge be proved right or will Peckover change his compulsive criminal ways? What help will he get in prison to prevent him coming out yet again to offend for the fifth time? Will it make any difference? I think it will.

No more from me today as I am off to our team Christmas do……

Wednesday 28 November 22:11

Sophisticated conman and fraudster convicted

It was two years ago, just after four on a Friday afternoon when DS Mick Richards answered the phone in the Money Laundering Team office. As Detectives we all know about those Friday afternoon calls at the end of the day that turn your working life upside down for many months, if not years! The call was from the local police at the Turks & Caicos Islands asking if we had heard of an Alistair Stewart. They explained that a Nina Siegenthaler, a Sotheby’s real estate executive living out there had been in to the police station to report a significant fraud by Stewart. The rest is history as they say, as Stewart pleaded guilty last week to a £650 000 fraud at the Old Bailey.

What you don’t see is the 2 years of hard work and detailed investigation carried out by Mick and DC Nicola Balkham. They discovered that Stewart lived in Burgess Hill and had committed fraud previously against his elderly neighbour. This time he had taken a significant step further by masquerading as a wealthy fund manager running a Swiss finance company. In fact he had been living on benefits! He duped Nina, who fell for his charms and deceits and ended up handing him over more than £600 000 to invest for her. He used this to then fund a lavish lifestyle to further con other victims across the world and maintain the illusion of such an extravagant life.

Nina admitted that she had fallen completely for his charms and took the time to write to me to say how grateful she was for the support given to her throughout by Mick and Nicola. She told me that it took my officers to “break the spell that Alistair Stewart had on her” and how critical their support, despite being in the UK, had been on enabling her to come forward and provide evidence so that Stewart could be brought to justice.

Stewart was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 19^th December. I hope to be there with Mick and Nicola to witness the conclusion of this long and successful investigation and I hope that Nina can start to find closure.

Tuesday 27 November 20:53

Be alert to distraction burglary and if you're not sure don't open the door!

 The ACPO burglary awareness campaign features three themed weeks, this week the focus is on distraction burglaries. Distraction burglaries are where tricks, lies and distraction are used on a home owner, the most common types are where the offender pretends to be from the water board, gas or electricity, or they pretend to do repairs. Distraction burglars are members of serious organized crime groups who travel the country to target elderly people living on their own and who often keep cash in their homes.

This week is about promoting our positive action to target these organized crime groups and to share crime prevention advice. This is a priority for my teams and my blog on 1^st November highlights our success in charging 5 males who had been targeting vulnerable home owners, tricking them into paying over £335 00 for unnecessary work. We also have a planned arrest tomorrow, so we remain determined! We know the profoundly negative effect these crimes can have on the victims. I will keep you updated as our case progresses through the court.

We want to use this week to alert people of this crime and to work together to make it harder for criminals to get away with distraction burglary. If you remember anything about distraction burglary, let it be:

‘If you’re not sure, don’t open the door”.

Our advice is to take these simple steps to protect yourself and share them with anyone you think could be at risk:

• Check the identity of callers by calling the company they claim to be from. Use the telephone numbers listed in your local directory, online or provided independently by your service provider. Do not use any telephone numbers provided by the caller – they may be bogus.

• Telephone a neighbor or friend nearby to come along and check out the caller before you open the door to them.

• The “Waterboard” has not existed for 28 years; turn away anyone purporting to be from it.

• Keep cash in the bank where it is secure.

• Consider storing valuable jewellry in bank deposit box- contact your bank for details.

• Keep doors locked and windows secure at all times.

• Ensure that if you do let somebody in to your home, that you close the door behind them – distraction burglars often work in teams, while you’re distracted another person may sneak in through an open door.

• If somebody asks for your help, needs to make a telephone call, needs a drink or wants directions, don’t feel pressurised into letting them in. Help through a closed door; refer them to a younger neighbour or call to ask someone to assist.

• Not sure? Don’t open the door.

Last Friday Terry Sterriker appeared at Brighton and Hove Magistrates Court charged with importing 14 333 tablets (diazepam and temazepam) class C drug from Pakistan. The drugs were recovered during a warrant that we executed at his home address in Newhaven. An interesting aspect of this case is that we believe Sterriker ordered the drugs on-line through a web site. This was not the Silk Road internet site which the Argus so kindly described in detail last week, but my point is we are working hard to tackle many different types of drug importation and supply.

Why is it that when you have an excellent member of police staff they leave to go and work in the private sector? We need to do more in the police service to retain talented staff; it is very frustrating to see them move off into the private business world. So I will use this blog to say goodbye and good luck to Hayley Carmichael! You will be missed!