Crooks forced to hand over £1.7 million assets

Luxury cars and lavish villas are among a £1.7 million criminal haul seized by Staffordshire Police in the past year.

Fraudsters, drug barons and other crooks have been forced to hand over cash or sell their ill-gotten possessions by the courts.

Among the assets seized was Barn Bank Manor in Hyde Lea, Stafford, belonging to fraudster Paul Cope who also had his Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and Ferrari repossessed by officers.

It comes after it was revealed more than £100m has been seized from criminals across Staffordshire and the West Midlands over the past two years.

Staffordshire's economic crime unit beat annual targets between April 2011 and March 2012 with 158 confiscation orders totalling £1.638m and the seizure of £90,327 cash.

Confiscation orders, issued by judges, make offenders pay back the cash equivalent of their benefit from crime – meaning they have to sell off homes, cars and other luxury items, such as jewellery, acquired through their corrupt lifestyle.

Police recovered £270,105 from Stafford restaurant owner Qi Xing Weng who was jailed for six years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis.

The 29-year-old was behind one of the region's biggest cannabis factories, based in Birmingham where 1,400 plants were recovered in a police raid in March 2008.

But the biggest single payback was £406,000 from the sale of assets belonging to Stafford businessman Paul Cope, jailed for five years and four months for his leading role in a £28 million fraud.

The shamed financier's ritzy lifestyle of expensive cars and a mansion with a swimming pool and tennis courts was "all show", the jury heard at his trial last year.

It is thought that the 46-year-old former Stafford Rangers shirt sponsor, charged with leasing and mortgage frauds, also had more money hidden away which has not been found.