Drug trafficker ordered to pay back £400k
Tuesday, 15th September 2015.
A drugs trafficker who was jailed for 25 years for trying to smuggle cocaine worth £34m into the UK has been ordered to hand over £400,000 or face even longer behind bars.
Frederick Colverson, 60, of east London, and Suffolk company director Terance Smith were imprisoned for a total of 45 years after 174 kilos of cocaine were found when police raided an industrial unit in Highbury Road, Brandon, Suffolk, in 2011.
The consignment had come through Felixstowe Docks.
During the pair’s Ipswich Crown Court trial in 2012 the drugs, which were hidden in the bottom of boxes of pineapples, were said to be worth £34m.
On Thursday (10 September) a proceeds of crime confiscation hearing at Ipswich Crown Court in relation to Colverson ruled that his benefit from the crime had been £2,618,594. He was ordered that he should hand over his realisable assets valued at £407,683. They include a cottage, five Triumph motorcycles and cash raised from the sale of boats and other vehicles.
He has six months to hand over the money or will face an addition four years in prison. The total benefit will stay with him regardless of whether he serves any additional jail time and his accounts will be regularly revisited by financial investigators.
The action was brought to court by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit’s Regional Economic Crime Unit which works on behalf of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk police forces.
Asset Recovery Team Leader Malcolm Ewles said: "This case shows how we will continue to go after criminals’ funds even if they
have already been sentenced to significant jail sentences.
"We are determined that crime should not pay and will relentlessly pursue offenders to claw back any realisable assets they may have.”
Colverson had denied conspiring to supply Class A drugs but was convicted after a trial.
Smith, now 62, of Ethelreda Drive, Thetford, admitted conspiring to supply class A drugs and was jailed for 20 years.
Frederick Colverson, 60, of east London, and Suffolk company director Terance Smith were imprisoned for a total of 45 years after 174 kilos of cocaine were found when police raided an industrial unit in Highbury Road, Brandon, Suffolk, in 2011.
The consignment had come through Felixstowe Docks.
During the pair’s Ipswich Crown Court trial in 2012 the drugs, which were hidden in the bottom of boxes of pineapples, were said to be worth £34m.
On Thursday (10 September) a proceeds of crime confiscation hearing at Ipswich Crown Court in relation to Colverson ruled that his benefit from the crime had been £2,618,594. He was ordered that he should hand over his realisable assets valued at £407,683. They include a cottage, five Triumph motorcycles and cash raised from the sale of boats and other vehicles.
He has six months to hand over the money or will face an addition four years in prison. The total benefit will stay with him regardless of whether he serves any additional jail time and his accounts will be regularly revisited by financial investigators.
The action was brought to court by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit’s Regional Economic Crime Unit which works on behalf of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk police forces.
Asset Recovery Team Leader Malcolm Ewles said: "This case shows how we will continue to go after criminals’ funds even if they
have already been sentenced to significant jail sentences.
"We are determined that crime should not pay and will relentlessly pursue offenders to claw back any realisable assets they may have.”
Colverson had denied conspiring to supply Class A drugs but was convicted after a trial.
Smith, now 62, of Ethelreda Drive, Thetford, admitted conspiring to supply class A drugs and was jailed for 20 years.
Web Link: http://www.suffolk-pcc.gov.uk
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