The transformation of criminal cash into money that benefits the communities of Greater Manchester

April 8, 2025

Over the last year, GMP’s Economic Crime Unit have successfully forfeited over £17 million from criminal’s back pockets and the funds have been handed to organisations who support local communities across Greater Manchester whose main aims are to help and support our plan in reducing, tackling and preventing crime across the region.
Today marks the start of the new financial year, last year through activity that occurred across the force, a total of £17,715,283.24 was seized and recovered from criminals and through the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS), a large proportion of money that is seized from criminals as a result of policing activity is given back to the community.
We know that criminals believe they can successfully hide their ill-gotten gains but our specialist teams in the Economic Crime Unit are working hard and know exactly how to find it, seize it and then legally recover the funds through court.
The money comes from a variety of policing activity that occurs force wide every single day, we seize the money first and this is predominantly done by executing warrants or conducting stop searches on people and vehicles.
Alongside this, the Account Freezing Order team who are also based in the unit, seize money in a different way – by targeting criminal bank accounts.
Operation Falcon is a dedicated operation launched in May 2022 to tackle money laundering in a bid to disrupt wider organised crime in Greater Manchester.
The cases are then passed to the Asset Detention and Recovery Unit. This team is made up of specialist officers and staff who conduct civil investigations that arise following these seizures. Using the balance of probability, officers need to have evidence to show that the money has been gained through the profits of crime.
Once the money goes to court and the case is successful, the money is then legally recovered and will be used to benefit the communities throughout the force.
We keep 50% of the money we recover to spend on community initiatives and the other 50% goes back to the Home Office. The money that we get back is either used on community initiatives or within the force to further asset recovery work, or on policing operations that will be beneficial to keeping the local community safe from crime.
Detective Superintendent Andrew Buckthorpe who leads GMP’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “In the last tax year we recovered the highest amount of criminal cash we have ever recovered in recent times and it really shows that the hard work from officers and staff in the unit and across the force is making a real difference in communities across Greater Manchester.
“Just six hours into the new tax year, we started the year how we mean to go on with early morning warrants. On the morning of Tuesday 1 April 2025 in Salford and Cheetham Hill, Economic Crime Unit officers were out causing disruption to those who we believe are blighting local communities. Two men were arrested on suspicion of money laundering and £50,000 cash along with an £80,0000 vehicle were seized following searches.
“We are getting more money from criminals, and this money is being used for good in the communities we serve. Keeping the people of Greater Manchester safe from crime is our main priority, and this is a way we can give back, through officer’s hard work, we are in a really strong position where we continue to strip criminals of their finances which are often used to further crime in our communities.
“These efforts are showing and it’s an important part of the justice system that those who benefit from the profits of crime get their finances stripped from them and aren’t allowed to enjoy this money at the detriment of everyone else, and it’s even more satisfying to know that it is now being used for a good purpose.”