Amount of money received by SOCA from Her Majesty’s taxpayers since inception in 2006 = GBP1.2b
Amount of money recovered from criminals = GBP78m
One is tempted not to insert a third line with the word “priceless”, however SOCA – like most other financial intelligence units – should not be designed as a profit centre. One cannot measure the contribution of an FIU on the basis of money recovered only, as it ignores prevention, deterrence, national security, education and so many other benefits.
The modern press has had a difficult time sorting the nonsense from the truth amidst the current financial crisis (best name to date = “The Great Recession”). Given the target-rich environment, hammering away at the local domestic financial intelligence is a poor decision in these troubled times.
“Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
- Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5612151/Britains-FBI-Soca-spending-15-for-every-1-it-recovers.html
Britain's 'FBI' Soca spending £15 for every £1 it recovers
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) - Britain's "FBI" - is spending £15 of public money for
every £1 it seizes from criminal gangs but its chairman has still marked it eight out of ten for effort.
By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
Published: 2:28PM BST 23 Jun 2009
Soca has received around £1.2bn since it began in 2006 but has so far only recovered £78 million from criminals, MPs were told. Sir Stephen Lander, it's outgoing chairman, also admitted the organisation had underestimated the scale of crimelords and gangs it had to tackle.
He said there are now an estimated 4,000 individuals involved in serious criminal gangs.
"The scale of the problem is larger than people have anticipated," he told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. He added later: "It was always going to take some time to get going. To be honest, I think I underestimated some of the organisational difficulties we would experience in the beginning. Sir Stephen said the actual money seized did not include assets and cash that have been restrained and that overall criminals had been stopped from using some £460 million.
Asked how well he thought the organisation had performed he gave it eight out of ten.
Challenged on whether others would agree, he added: "I have the advantage of knowing the facts."
Bill Hughes, director general of Soca, said only around a third of cocaine is stopped from entering the UK and warned it is being cut with inappropriate substances such as worm powder.
Soca recently claimed cocaine traffickers are in retreat following a series of operations against them which has forced the price up. But drugs campaigners Release said the price had gone up because of the poor exchange rate between sterling and US dollar.
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