When the 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.
Police! Search warrant!
Search warrant!
In this series, we'll see police forces across the country
use their Proceeds of Crime powers to arrest criminals
and take away their ill-gotten gains.
Everything from high-end cars to designer handbags
are seized and sent to a Proceeds of Crime auction.
Sold.
We follow the stories behind the criminals' fancy goods,
then watch as members of the public bid to take them home
and discover where the money raised ends up.
Coming up -
There's a rude awakening for a gang of prolific burglars
in East Anglia.
Police! Don't touch anything. Leave it.
The firearms, dogs, the public order serials are there purely
as a contingency.
As a team of almost 100 officers seize hundreds of thousands
of pounds worth of goods from their caravan sites.
A violent gang of thieves who stole £2 million worth of other people's
property have their own much-loved bling sold off.
Anybody else? I have a five bid. Six bid. Seven bid. Nine...
And police get help to sniff out criminals
using Proceeds of Crime cash.
A dog like Poca, when she's trained up, she can search a house
or a car far quicker than a number of officers because her nose
is far, far better than my searching ability, basically.
Proceeds of Crime powers enable police to seize cash and assets
from those they suspect of criminal activity.
But before they can do that, they need to launch an investigation.
And that's exactly what one team are just about to do.
In Suffolk, it's the early hours of the morning,
and while most of us are in bed, the police are about to launch
a major operation on a caravan site nearby.
The operation is in response to a spate of more than 150 burglaries
across East Anglia, London and the Home Counties.
There are quite a number of suspects involved
so a large police presence will be crucial
in securing multiple arrests.
The majority live on a small caravan site that they own in Suffolk,
and that is where we're going to be going to today.
So, the suspects that we are after at this particular time,
in order to arrest...
We can't name the suspects, but the suspicion is
that they have been responsible for residential burglaries
that have caused widespread misery for a large number of homeowners.
Police have identified as many as nine suspects
who they're now keen to question.
The suspects are considered to be audacious thieves
who have stolen very high value items.
So, the intention today is to execute Section 8 PACE
and Section 46 at the site, which is owned and occupied by the majority
of the suspects.
All suspects found at the site will be arrested and taken
to Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre,
where they will be interviewed.
And we will be looking for mobile phones and sims.
I want to be absolutely clear in this briefing that every single
mobile phone within those caravans and on people's persons
are to be seized. That is what we are going on there for primarily.
I will control everything which is on that site,
obviously with your help.
The only time this is going to go over to a public order
is if there is wide-scale disorder on that site.
Given the numbers that we've got here today,
that is certainly not anticipated.
Briefing completed,
the officers prepare to head to the site in convoy.
Police hope there'll be no resisting arrest, but with more than
100 officers from four forces involved,
they're not taking any chances.
We're expecting that, with the officers we've got
and the way we're going about doing this, that we should get
no real problems on the site at all.
So, the firearms, the dogs, the public order serials are there
purely as a contingency, just to make sure that, if anything
did go wrong, we have got the people there to be able
to quickly resolve that.
With so many suspects in one place,
police are concerned that trouble might break out.
So, they've sent a drone up just above the site
to scope out what's happening.
They hope that, given the early start, the inhabitants
will all be asleep.
Yes, I think the drone's already gone up.
They're just checking the layout of the site to make sure
that nothing's been moved that will mean that when people go on
there's any confusion.
And the intention is that we will be on the site
in the next three minutes.
So, I would expect that we'll be moving off very, very shortly.
And it looks like they're in luck.
All seems quiet in the caravans and the go ahead is given.
Officers know it's vital to move fast but stay quiet.
They want to surround the site
without alerting the residents to their presence.
Left, left, left.
And before long, nearly 100 officers have silently deployed
and have the suspects' caravans firmly in their sights.
With the area secured, police quickly begin searching the site
for stolen goods.
Get your arms out of there. Don't touch anything. Leave it.
And inside the caravans, their tactics have been successful.
They found six of their suspects fast asleep.
And as morning begins to break,
the suspects are handcuffed and taken to the station
for further questioning.
So, this morning, through the pre-op to planned operation,
we've managed to enter site, no issues whatsoever
from any of the occupants.
A number of males have been arrested on suspicion
of burglary and have been now taken over to Great Yarmouth
Police Investigation Centre, where they will be processed.
Police have made multiple arrests for burglary.
But are they right?
And is there stolen property at this location?
We'll find out later on.
Greed is usually the biggest factor in making people commit crimes.
Criminals want to make money, but some crimes have an enormous
emotional impact on the victims, and many of them feel it's vital
that criminals lose THEIR cash and assets.
This CCTV footage captures a gang of thieves going to work.
Kitted out in all-white suits and masks,
they're a scary sight.
They're here to steal the cash machine from inside this garage,
and their methods aren't subtle.
Once inside, the gang get straight to the cash machine
and attach heavy cables to it.
Their plan is to use their 4x4 to drag the cash machine clean out
and steal all the money in it.
TYRES SQUEAL
They wreck the entrance
but are unable to get the machine out.
No luck this time, but this terrifying gang of thieves
are also expert burglars.
Take a look through this collection of images.
Rolex watches worth tens of thousands of pounds,
amulets with rare stones,
diamond rings,
horse saddles,
power tools,
a war medal,
a charm bracelet and some spoons.
These items were reported stolen by their rightful owners.
The gang of masked thieves have plundered over £2 million worth
of other people's stuff in an 11-month crime spree.
But just who were these men?
Cambridgeshire Police were called in to find the gang.
This is Detective Constable Susan Burberry.
She was one of the Cambridgeshire officers whose job it was
to discover the masked men's identities.
The gang were an organised crime group who were carrying out dwelling
burglaries in houses in isolated, probably wealthy areas.
They targeted these houses and stole high-value cars
and other items like jewellery.
And the houses were normally quite big houses,
potentially quite wealthy areas.
And the gang were stealing a number of personal items
from all the houses they cased and broke into.
Jewellery is something that can be worth a lot of money.
It's also very easy to carry.
A very small bit of jewellery can be worth a lot of money.
And it's also quite easy to sell on to handlers
and potentially to melt down the metal and make it into new things
so then it's difficult to trace.
Jewellery with immense personal significance was being stolen
across five counties.
We spoke to one person who was a victim of one of the gang's
heart-breaking raids.
She's asked not to be identified, but we'll call her Christine.
I was out that morning
and I had a phone call from my husband to say
we'd had a break in.
Christine's husband had returned home to find the front door ajar
and a number of things amiss in the house.
So, I came straight home to discover
they'd broken one of the windows
in the back bedroom, climbed through.
I thought originally that
everything was going to be fairly safe
because our safe was bolted to the wall in the dressing room.
But I was horrified when I went in
to see that they'd jemmied it off.
They couldn't find the key
and they'd jemmied the whole safe off and taken it away.
The couple phoned the police and tried to make sense
of what happened.
We checked other rooms in the house
to see if anything else had been taken.
Erm, and I knew most of what was in the safe
but I'd forgotten that we had important papers as well.
We had our marriage certificates, birth certificates, passports.
Erm, even our mum and dad's marriage certificates.
So I was just, you know, my mind was...
My head was just spinning on, you know, how we were going
to replace all that as well.
The paperwork could be replaced,
but other items the couple lost could not.
I was more upset about my grandmother
and my mother's engagement rings.
Erm...
I didn't have them insured because it's not something
you can replace.
And they were just very special to me
and I did wear them on special occasions.
But not only did Christine have to deal with the loss
of irreplaceable family heirlooms, like many other victims of crime,
she had to come to terms with how and why they were targeted.
I don't think these people have any idea how much harm they do,
how they affect people and, quite honestly,
I don't think they care either.
These are career criminals.
This is what they do for a living.
They go round robbing people who've spent hard-earned money
on things, steal them and sell them for a pittance.
They have to keep doing it because that's all they know how to do.
It wasn't till the Monday morning when I was doing the washing up
and I suddenly just broke down.
I don't think I've ever sobbed like that before.
It was just so heartbreaking knowing I'm never going to see
any of those things ever again.
The task for police was to collect as much evidence as possible to find
out who the men in white suits were.
And on one occasion, they nearly caught several gang members.
One memorable incident during the course of the investigation
was in July 2017, when three members of the gang
had burgled a house and stolen some Labrador puppies
and they were in the boot of a stolen vehicle
which had been used in the burglary.
And they made off from police and police were pursuing them.
They were at the railway crossing at Lakenheath
and the barriers came down in order to stop traffic
from coming past because the train was going to come through.
And this car, this stolen vehicle, smashed through the barriers
just before the train arrived and made off on the other side
with the puppies still in the boot.
It was really dangerous.
The train had to emergency stop and the vehicle was recovered
a short while afterwards.
The offenders had made off, but the puppies were still in the boot
and they were rescued.
The puppies were brought back home, but the gang was still at large.
But later on, we'll see how a tip off from the public
led to the gang's identity being revealed.
Police seize assets from criminals every day
with a view to selling them on.
They might seize literally anything they think can be sold.
But where does it all go?
A new shipment of assets has arrived at the Proceeds of Crime Auction.
Everything seen here has been seized from criminals or suspects
in criminal cases.
The items were seized by police forces in the north of England.
But what is hidden away in these bags?
Four headphones in packaging, miscellaneous items.
21 T-shirts from Mountain Warehouse.
Brand-new trainers,
jeans, Hollister clothing, all the labels on.
Director Aidan Larkin is about to discover what new items
have been put into the auction to be sold off.
He and his team are the ones responsible for actually selling
all the items seized as Proceeds of Crime.
And it's his job to get the best price he can
for a wide range of assets.
It all adds up and it all generates revenue.
So, effectively, yes, everything is up for grabs if it has a value.
But criminals commit crimes to help themselves get the finest
things in life.
Don't believe me? Well, take a look at these.
They were all taken from criminals.
This is over £500,000 worth of watches.
We have the sort of Holy Grail of watches,
with the Patek Philippe, both models, both variations.
Another Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Rolex.
Years ago, police officers may not have known this sort of
seemingly innocuous stainless steel Patek Philippe.
That's not a watch that everybody knows.
But to know that that watch has a five-year waiting list
and can actually be worth double its original retail price
in some parts of the world.
That's the sort of information that we have to provide to officers
and to the court to help inform their decisions
as to what is realisable asset.
And that's basically our role in a nutshell,
it's to make sure that we can manage these seized assets, but make sure
that we can generate the highest possible revenue.
Because, ultimately,
there is a victim, or the money goes back to court, and we have to
convert these into cash.
But even these watches aren't the most remarkable items
the Proceeds of Crime auction will be selling off.
It seems criminals in Britain are absolutely determined
to own the final word in luxury,
all paid for out of their ill-gotten gains.
A lot of the assets then will come through for preparation,
evaluation and assessment.
It's, like I say, it's nice to see these more sort of expensive assets,
they're always very interesting.
They're sort of crowd pleasers, the likes of the Rolls-Royce Wraith,
it's rare enough to get the likes of these
being seized and coming into auction.
But it's even more rare to get two in the same specification.
Two Rolls-Royce Wraiths -
that could be £500,000 worth.
So all of these assets now will be taken through
and they'll be thoroughly searched, prepped
and they go through an inspection process.
So it's a full-time job alone just looking after these cars
and just keeping them in the best condition that we possibly can.
The next time we see these assets, they'll be up for sale
in the Proceeds of Crime auction.
You might even want to buy one yourself.
Earlier on, we saw how police in Suffolk raided the caravan site
of a gang of prolific burglars.
Police! Stand still.
Get your arms out of there.
Don't touch anything. Leave it.
Six men were taken into custody following an early-morning raid.
And now police are searching an extensive area surrounding
the site for further evidence.
They've already begun seizing all items and vehicles they suspect
may be stolen, including eight of the caravans on site.
Yeah, through checks on the national system, they are registered
as stolen, so as a result of that, we've taken that property
from the site and back into our possession.
But one resident is extremely unhappy that a caravan
is being seized.
The problem what I have at the moment is
that this is down as stolen.
Yes, I do need proof, but I need to speak to the person
who owned this originally.
A woman in the caravan is saying she gave police the number
of whoever sold the caravan to her.
What you'd been giving me is the number of the person
who sold the caravan.
Now she's saying it's been bought from a legitimate caravan seller.
I understand that.
Police will check all claims the residents make.
But for now, the caravans in question are being seized,
and they don't come cheap.
Some of them are really nice caravans,
multi-axle type vans which would retail
for around about £30,000.
Following forensic examination,
a number of additional items are also seized from the scene.
Items include mobile phones that we've seized,
also a small amount of cash.
But we've also taken all footwear which relate to this operation,
as well as clothing, which we believe to have been stolen.
Footwear can be crucial evidence in burglary investigations
and shoes are being photographed on site.
So, the footwear is quite prevalent in the investigation because there's
been a number of footwear marks left at the scenes of burglaries.
As a result of that, we'd like to check the footwear
from a forensic perspective to see if they will match any of the
footwear marks found at the scenes of burglaries.
And as the search continues, one keen-eyed officer
spots this mobile phone in a horse trailer
and police think it might just prove to be a vital piece of evidence.
When I searched the area,
originally the chicken pen was just here,
so I began my search just over here.
Whilst conducting my search, moving through all the hay over here,
that's when I found a smartphone.
It's, erm, a little old smartphone there.
A bit of an unusual spot to find a phone.
So that's now going to... CSI are now going to come over.
So it's currently waiting on CSI.
So I'll be waiting here till they arrive.
What they'll do, they'll be checking the fingerprints
so they can ID a potential person who owns the phone.
And the phone has definitely aroused police suspicion.
Yeah. One would not normally keep a mobile phone in a trailer
with hay over the top of that.
So, that phone may well be involved in the criminality,
in the arranging of that criminality.
So, just small items like that could actually lead to a fairly key piece
of evidence in a large-scale investigation.
In addition to the phones, jewellery and caravans seized,
police have also removed a variety of vans
and high-end cars from the site.
We've seized eight caravans in total, as well as ten vehicles
which we believe to either be stolen or cannot be accounted for.
So we've taken those off the site.
These items will be held by police and, if deemed eligible, will end
up going under the hammer at a Proceeds of Crime auction.
Some of the property which had been stolen, we'll look
to have that identified by victims of crime and we'll be looking
to return that property to them.
For the likes of the caravans, we need to identify exactly
where they've come from to get those back to owners.
But also things like stolen clothing
will all need to go back to owners as well.
So, what we'll be looking to do is to put considerable proper
application in, in order to recoup some of that money and funds
for those who had things stolen.
Earlier, we saw how a gang of burglars were targeting homes
across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and bringing heartbreak to victims
whose precious items were stolen.
Cambridgeshire Police were trying to arrest the gang
and trace any items they had stolen.
They believed they were operating a network
stealing items and selling them off through hard-to-trace sources.
And then they got an out-of-the-blue call from a member of the public
who thought they were witnessing a man selling drugs in a car park.
Police attended and found that it wasn't drugs.
There was a bag of silver that he was trying to sell
and he was arrested as a result of that.
Police realised the jewellery the man was trying to sell
had come from some of the gang's raids.
And now they had an idea of who the gang might be,
they were so confident they applied for warrants
and decided to pay their suspects a visit.
These stills show some of the things they encountered.
All of these items were recovered from multiple properties
raided by police.
There was so much jewellery because one member of the gang
ran a gold shop.
So, jewellery like this was easy for them to dispose of.
There were quite a lot of surprises in terms of what we found
at the properties.
We found some stolen vehicles, found a lot of horse tack, saddles
and power tools, a lot of jewellery which was stolen
and cash - about tens of thousands of pounds in banknotes.
And, memorably, some wrought-iron gates which had been stolen
off the front of somebody's address in a burglary
and were now attached to the front of this address.
There was enough evidence to build a case against these men.
They are the gang who brought misery and heartbreak to so many people
across the eastern United Kingdom.
12 arrests were made, including brothers Johnny and Richard Oakley.
Police then had the task of reuniting stolen items
with those who had lost them.
We wrote to people that we knew had been victims of burglary
and that it was likely to have been this gang that carried out
the burglary, and invited them to come for an open day to view
the property and see if they could identify any of it as theirs.
The open days are quite an emotional experience because a lot of people
told us their stories of how they had been burgled
and the effect that it had had on them.
And for those that were reunited with their stolen jewellery,
it was really lovely to see how pleased they were to get it back.
Christine was called in to inspect the reclaimed items
to see if anything might be hers.
When I arrived, they just asked me to look through the items
and I could see straight away that it was only really the pearls
that belonged to my mother that were ones I was interested in.
Disappointingly, there was nothing else in the haul
belonging to her family.
Oh, I was just hoping that,
you know, the rings would be there, but...
They were such lovely rings, really old-fashioned.
When I saw the pearls, I thought,
oh, at least I've got something of my mother's left.
I was really happy, yeah, just to get that little bit back.
The gang were put on trial
and found guilty.
They'd stolen £2 million worth of other people's property
over 11 months.
They were given lengthy jail sentences.
The gang received total sentence between all of them of 71 years,
which included several members of the same families.
So, there were a lot of people locked up all in one day.
1,000 bid. 1,100. 11 bid.
Police decided to use Proceeds of Crime powers
to sell off any assets that the gang members had.
AUCTIONEER CALLS BIDS
They were able to identify that this ring,
belonging to one of the Oakley brothers who had been jailed,
was one such asset.
But one of the Oakley brothers didn't want the ring sold off.
He got his solicitor to request the ring should not be sold.
The reason? It had sentimental value and he wanted it
for an upcoming family wedding.
The irony was not lost on the police.
One of the men whose gang stole sentimental items from so many
now wanted his sentimental item returned to him.
The police looked at his request and said, no.
They put it up for auction instead.
What will it fetch?
We'll see later.
At £500. At £500 bid.
When police sell off people's assets,
it's often after they've been sent to jail.
But there are exceptions.
Some complex cases can result in expensive assets going for sale
without anyone being convicted.
And that's the case with one very attractive asset
that's up for auction now.
This is a Bentley Mulsanne, a hugely desirable luxury car
that's just about to be sold.
It's the perfect car for cruising Mayfair and Park Lane,
or taking in Royal Ascot or the Henley Regatta.
And it's attracting a considerable amount of attention from the public
as it's brought out to be looked at.
When you have something like this, it very clearly draws a crowd.
It's such a prestigious vehicle, very rarely is offered
in this type of auction.
But Proceeds of Crime auctions frequently feature some of the most
luxurious brands available.
That's what brings people in
to try and buy a piece of something special.
It's a wonderful opportunity to be able to take it out of its normal
setting and offer it right at the coalface in terms of the market,
in front of the traders who can actually buy this asset tonight.
But you may actually find there could be a retail buyer
or someone that fancies a flutter, and if they keep their wits
about them could go home with a bit of a bargain.
A bargain, indeed.
But this car is a seized asset.
Its former owners consented to have it sold off
after an investigation by the National Crime Agency alleged links
between them and international money laundering.
Jonathan and Amanda Nuttall and their associate, Timothy Becker,
were living a lifestyle most of us could only dream of.
They shopped at Harrods, flew on private planes and bought up
properties like this fancy hotel.
And, of course, they were driving around
in the most comfort imaginable.
Amanda Nuttall had won over £2 million on the lottery,
but investigators from the National Crime Agency, the NCA,
alleged that the real source of much of their wealth
was from money laundering.
Following a civil investigation, members of the group agreed
to give up their assets for sale rather than face trial.
The car was one of those assets.
Bentley Mulsanne, it's nearly nine years old,
but it looks like it did when it came out of the factory.
So, it's such a prestigious and luxurious brand, known worldwide,
that when we offer one for auction it will always draw a crowd.
And what are the crowd prepared to pay?
The car is just about to sell.
OK, folks, undoubtedly the star of the show -
the Bentley Mulsanne V8.
Incredible car, October 2010.
I have a commission bid, it's an unreserved auction.
Starts off at £20,000. Going in fives.
It's away at 20,000. 25.
30 with me. 30,000.
35. 36 with me in the commission bid.
At 36 now on the commission bid.
Do I have 37?
37. Lady's bid. At £37,000.
And five. 37,500.
And five.
Shakes the head.
750.
At 40,750.
Do we say one?
41 to fill it? 41,000.
I'm looking for 250 on the Bentley Mulsanne V8.
Only 40,000 miles.
41. Going once.
41... Got you, madam.
41,250.
At 41,250.
And five? And five.
At 41,500.
Going once.
41,500 twice.
Third and last. Sold. Well done, sir.
41,000. Beautiful car. Thank you.
Thanks for your bids. 26... Is that 2624?
2824.
£41,500 that will now be returned to the Government.
The money will be used in fighting crime
and funding local groups and charities.
So we've seen a high-value asset get sold off at auction.
But where does money like that go?
Does it get spent in a way that might help the general public?
Well, some of it certainly does help those of us on two feet...
..and those on four.
Nestled away in the Warwickshire countryside
is Warwickshire Police Headquarters.
The grounds of this ex-stately home are perfect for training.
But it won't be police officers
that will be traversing these obstacles.
Today, PC Kaz Richards is responsible for training recruits
with a very particular set of skills.
Hello.
I'm a police dog handler.
I've been in the police now just over 19 years
and been doing dog handling for the last 14 years.
And I work two dogs.
One's a general-purpose police dog,
the other one is a drugs, cash, firearms search dog.
Good girl.
This one's Elsa, this is my GP dog.
She's three and a half now.
She obviously lives at home with me as well.
She's desperate to get out and do something.
Good girl.
Yeah, all the dogs live at home with us.
With every handler, they live in their home address.
So my days off are their days off,
and when I'm at work, they're at work.
Police dogs are invaluable members of any police force.
With their exceptional sense of smell,
they can be trained to sniff out anything from drugs,
cash and firearms to missing people.
Gwen's been a very good search dog, haven't you, Gwen?
Had some absolutely fantastic finds over the years.
I'd say £100,000 was quite a good find for her, in a truck.
And...numerous drugs finds over the years.
But just like their human counterparts,
a police dog's career doesn't last forever.
Gwen's ten and a half,
so she's, she's retiring now.
She's finished her working career.
But it's just now time for her to relax and chill out on the sofa.
With her superstar search dog Gwen close to retirement,
Kaz has already started training her replacement.
And here is the newest recruit.
Come on, then.
Are we ready?
Hello!
Hello, little one.
Hello.
Oh, and you're off.
Meet Poca the puppy, Warwickshire's newest weapon
in the fight against crime.
This is Poca, she's a 14-week-old cocker spaniel puppy.
Full of beans and wiggly-ness,
and loving life, aren't you, Poca?
At 14 weeks old, Poca still has a long way to go
until she's ready to take over from Gwen.
But her training has already started.
Good girl.
Yeah, good girl.
So, at the moment, she's playing with her,
her little teddy bear.
And we have a small tennis ball.
Sometimes we want the tennis ball,
sometimes we don't.
Can we have that one off you? Ouch.
So, what we're trying to do at the minute with her is just get her
used to playing with the ball and wanting the ball,
so the ball becomes a good game.
BALL SQUEAKS
We'll teach her to search for her ball first before we try
to even introduce her to any of the drugs and things
that we want her to find.
So, it's important for her that she loves the ball.
It becomes her reward for finding things.
But why call the pup Poca?
Well, it stands for Proceeds of Crime Act, a piece of legislation
that has a lot to do with why this young dog is in training.
Poc!
Poca's special because she's been paid for out the what we call
the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Some of those funds have been given back to the police
and that's what specifically paid for Poca.
Poca will hopefully be trained up to be, to search for drugs
and cash and firearms.
So, money that's been bought through drugs
and been taken off the drug dealers is now being
used to pay for a dog to take more drugs off the streets.
This is the first time Warwickshire Police have used
the Proceeds of Crime fund in this way,
making Poca the puppy the first of her kind,
but hopefully not the last,
provided she does well and completes her training.
It's not straightforward, it's not like I can go and pick any dog
and say, "You're going to be a police dog."
We're looking for specific traits in the dogs -
we want dogs that are confident, that are keen to work,
that have got drive for the ball or the toy.
So, it's not every dog can do it.
We're looking for a specific type of dog.
Police dogs are continually trained throughout their career,
with at least one or two days a month dedicated
to honing their scent recognition.
And criminals' money is paying for that for Poca.
This is Sid, he's a four-year-old cocker spaniel
that's trained as a drugs, cash, firearms dog.
He came to us actually as what we call a gift dog.
SID WHINES
So, someone's pet that was too much
for them, but perfect for us.
And as you can hear, he's quite excited to get going.
We've set up a scenario at the moment for Andy to set up
with his dog to search.
We've put out 2g of cocaine for the dog to find
and tell us that it's found it.
When the dog finds the substance what he'll do is what we call
give a freeze indication.
So, it'll actually just freeze, almost staring at where the item is
so the handler will know where the drugs are.
Right, as you can see, the dog has got very excited and busy
in a particular area.
So, he's obviously got in the scent pattern of the cocaine.
He's now got to source where that is.
And now we've found it.
LOUD CLICKING
So, we just... Just with the click at the end,
we just mark the fact he's got it right. He's spot on.
Even though he's an older dog, he still gets a ball reward
cos he's done it right.
And that's what all he's ultimately doing this game for,
it's a game to the dog and he's got to want to do it.
So, hence the reason why he gets his ball and a play at the end of it.
So, if we have a look and turn the chair over,
you can see in the base of the chair is where we've hidden
the cocaine,
and that's what he was finding.
One little bag of cocaine.
Not all dogs make the grade, but if she's lucky, Poca will go on
to search for drugs, cash and firearms,
providing invaluable support to officers on the ground.
A dog like Poca, when she's trained up and all the rest of it,
she can search a house or a car far quicker than a number of officers
because her nose is far, far better than my searching ability,
basically, is the easiest way to put it.
They are a very valuable asset to the police force.
Poca the puppy has got a long way to go to catch up
to her colleague, Sid,
but if her skills with the ball are anything to go by, she'll have no
trouble becoming a future crime fighter,
helping to search out the cash and assets that helped pay for her.
I think this is a lovely use of the money that's been seized.
So, it's a bit ironic, the fact that money that drug dealers have made
has then been seized from them and then been used to fund
something to take more...drugs off the streets.
Sorry, I had to laugh there - he just dived through your legs!
Earlier, we saw how a gang of highly organised thieves were striking
at properties and business premises for an 11-month period.
They stole numerous pieces of jewellery that had huge sentimental
value, and we spoke to one of their victims.
I don't think these people have any idea how much harm they do,
how they affect people and, quite honestly,
I don't think they care either.
The gang have been arrested and a piece of jewellery one of them owned
has been put up for sale at the Proceeds of Crime auction.
But the owners tried desperately to get it back.
They said the ring had sentimental family value, but police refused
to return it and have passed it on to the Proceeds of Crime sale.
I think if they've got any assets, any jewellery, any possessions,
they don't deserve to keep anything.
It's quite right that the police should auction it off.
And that means that assets gang members owned can be sold off.
Once, twice. Third and last.
They might want to look away now.
14-carat white gold. Diamond, .75 carat.
Let me get started on this one. Lot number 54.
Five's the bid to start. At £500.
At £500 bid. At 500.
Does anybody else have five bid? Six bid. Seven bid now.
At seven. Anybody else at £700?
Still value. At 700. Eight bid now.
At 800. Anybody else at 800 bid?
If we're all sure and not missing anybody else.
At £800. If we're all sure.
800 once. 800 twice.
Third and last. 800.
Not a massive sale, but this is just as much about doing the right thing,
and Christine feels a small amount of relief.
I was glad to hear that the police had sold it off.
I mean, why not?
I've be left with nothing so, so should they.
Even when criminals are behind bars,
they're 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.