MORE than £1,000,000 of criminal cash has been seized by an arm of North Yorkshire Police this year – their most successful year on record.

The force’s dedicated financial investigation unit has overseen 50 confiscation and forfeiture orders since the beginning of the current financial year and has seized criminal cash totalling £1,270,350.

Officers also secured its largest ever confiscation order, when disgraced limousine boss and drugs kingpin Dave Black was ordered to repay £354,500 of the cash he pocketed from cocaine-dealing.

Black has been given six months to repay the riches he made from his drug dealing – and if he fails he must serve an extra three-and-a-half years in prison in addition to the ten years he is already serving.

Other successes for the financial investigation unit have included a confiscation order of £267,806 issued by the courts against brothel keeper Barry Abrahams and the confiscation of £69,000 from Trevor Alfred Morris, who was part of a £1.4million plot to defraud insurance company Aviva.

Morris is currently serving two-and-a-half years for money laundering after his part in the scam and risks a further 18 months if he fails to comply with the confiscation order.

In total the financial investigation unit have recovered £855,363,41 in confiscation orders, £170,986,80 in forfeiture orders and £193,624 in confiscated cash.

Detective Inspector Ian Wills, head of the financial investigation unit, said: “It is good to hit criminals where it hurts: their pockets. This hurts them just as much, if not more, than jail terms because they have no honey pot to come out to afterwards.

“The case of Dave Black was the biggest confiscation order in the unit’s history.

“It was a complicated case and a tough one to get home and one we are very pleased about.

“Already, at this stage in the financial year, we have seized more money than any other year on record, so is very good news. It is testament to all the hard work of everyone in the department.

“We will continue to go from strength to strength and I anticipate that next year we will even top these figures.”