Safety Deposit Raids by Police......

[Tampon]

Ribol said:

vonhosen said:

Ribol said:

vonhosen said:

You don't have to look hard for updates.

http://cms.met.police.uk/news/major_operational_an...

http://www.met.police.uk/scd/operations/rize_faq.h...

Those links tell box owners nothing they want to know, when they can have their stuff back. All it says is the same rubbish they fob you off with on the phones at the call centre - basically when they get around to it.

A box owner should not be expected to be surfing the net to get updates, even IF they have access to the internet, what a ridiculous thing to expect them to do. The Police have all their contact details, they should be making contact keeping people informed about the restoration process, not fobbing them off on phones and now on the net for those with access to it.

If the Police keep phoning people, just to tell them that they haven't finished the investigation yet, that just delays things even further.

There is another option you obviously haven't considered, they could ring them up and tell them where abouts they are in the process and give them an indication as to where they are on the list.

I would rather they cracked on with the job I pay them to do, catch criminals. They have updated people even though you said they haven't.

You stated people have had stuff stolen, they haven't.

Once AGAIN it is a investigation, the emphasis is being put on the investigation not on updating lots of people personally and repeatedly, if your happy to pay more taxes then they could have a police officer for each and every street until then let them get on with it, people will get their stuff back soon.

[billberks2]

mickken said:

I know someone who committed a VAT Carousel fraud (alledgedly £12m), lived in a £4m house, with £1m of cars, watches, house(s) in Spain.....this is who the POC Act is aimed at.

He lost it all....although they could not convict him on the fraud, he could quite simply not account for his wealth.

Good result I say. (no axe to grid or chip on shoulder).

POC targets professional criminals....that is not a bad thing. End of.

Read the below article, and related limks if you want to know who the POC Act is aimed at. £5Bn - £7Bn missing! (in ONE year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fk me:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/06/01/ec_rev...

Edited by mickken on Wednesday 18th June 02:59

i too know a few people like this

lambo's, ferrari's, yacht, rangies (22"), rollers, bentleys, houses over europe

no-one knows what they do...

[jeff m]

Is this thread still going ?
Does that means that the contents of boxes held by the innocent public are still not returned? Fishing trip?

Read a few of the high handed replies by some that I guess are Policemen, you guys really don't do yourselves any favours with the attitude that ordinary people should not have deposited their valubles there. Implying "it's your own fault"

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Edited by jeff m on Tuesday 26th August 05:13

[Ribol]

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

I suspect if you don't want to get caught up in anything and be automatically treated as a criminal then the short answer is all of them. When you read some of the "they must be guilty of something if they have a SD box" stupidity on this thread it is really easy to see how the Police get away with some of the things they do.

I appreciate the Police have a tough job to do but there is no excuse for not keeping the people involved informed. Throwing up a website which tells you nothing about your box (last updated 3/7/2008) is useless, even if you do have access to the internet, which a ridiculous assumption to make in the circumstances.

If anyone is still in the dark about their box may I suggest you go direct to Commander G's office, my mate got nowhere until he started hassling them - forget the Rize team.

[jeff m]

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

[billberks2]

jeff m said:

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

there are plenty of home kits you can get that im sure would be safe enough...

under floor boards and pin system...

[rude-boy]

billberks2 said:

jeff m said:

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

there are plenty of home kits you can get that im sure would be safe enough...

under floor boards and pin system...

Err, not exactly. Mate had his 3 yearold change the code and lock the safe with the passports, etc in. Foot long metal bar and 1 lump hammer took less than 5 minutes.

[billberks2]

rude-boy said:

billberks2 said:

jeff m said:

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

there are plenty of home kits you can get that im sure would be safe enough...

under floor boards and pin system...

Err, not exactly. Mate had his 3 yearold change the code and lock the safe with the passports, etc in. Foot long metal bar and 1 lump hammer took less than 5 minutes.

so does that mean all home systems are as crap as his?

[Fantic SuperT]

My brother-in-law recently had his whole safe ripped out of his house and stolen. It contained a lot of irreplacable items and both sets of keys to his TVR. The insurance company are being total arses about paying for a replacement set of locks and car alarm because no damage has yet been done to the vehicle.
I've got more faith in furniture with secret drawers than a house safe. From this thread it seems safety deposit boxes are more hassle than they're worth.

[BAHN-STORMA]

jeff m said:

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

Nothing wrong with safety deposit boxes, depends who you use though...

You can't hide 'dodgy' stuff in reputable ones.

[Hedders]

BAHN-STORMA said:

jeff m said:

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

Nothing wrong with safety deposit boxes, depends who you use though...

You can't hide 'dodgy' stuff in reputable ones.

I thought that the bank that owned the box doesn't know what you are using it for?

[Ribol]

BAHN-STORMA said:

jeff m said:

mickken said:

jeff m said:

Maybe you could list SD box companies we should avoid
Expats use boxes a lot.

Quite simply avoid stashing lots of wealth if you can't explain from where it came.....real rocket science, that one.

What's "rocket science" got to do with it, housebreaking is rife, can you suggest a better place for stuff one can't afford to lose. Deeds, certificates, wife's jewellrey. Nothing illegal in mine. I would have thought ownership of a safety deposit box quite a normal thing.

Nothing wrong with safety deposit boxes, depends who you use though...

You can't hide 'dodgy' stuff in reputable ones.

How exactly would they know what you keep in it?

[BAHN-STORMA]

In response to both above...

In UK, I think they rely on terrorism laws (as they do for everything else!)

Very convenient for inland revenue though.

[Ribol]

BAHN-STORMA said:

In response to both above...

In UK, I think they rely on terrorism laws (as they do for everything else!)

Very convenient for inland revenue though.

That isn't an answer at all, why can't you hide dodgy stuff in a reputable one?

Anyone running a SD company (or bank for that matter) has no idea what you put in the box, they have no access to it. The Police found everything from guns to false teeth(serious) in there.

The Inland Revenue has been given a list of all the box owners with some marked out for "further investigation".

[BAHN-STORMA]

Ribol said:

BAHN-STORMA said:

In response to both above...

In UK, I think they rely on terrorism laws (as they do for everything else!)

Very convenient for inland revenue though.

That isn't an answer at all, why can't you hide dodgy stuff in a reputable one?

Anyone running a SD company (or bank for that matter) has no idea what you put in the box, they have no access to it. The Police found everything from guns to false teeth(serious) in there.

The Inland Revenue has been given a list of all the box owners with some marked out for "further investigation".

Well, it is 'an' answer.

Do you really think that they couldn't access one of their own boxes? Reputable or otherwise....

[rude-boy]

billberks2 said:

rude-boy said:

Err, not exactly. Mate had his 3 yearold change the code and lock the safe with the passports, etc in. Foot long metal bar and 1 lump hammer took less than 5 minutes.

so does that mean all home systems are as crap as his?

No, not at all but on a cost basis the rental of a SD box vurses the cost of purchasing a decent one, together with the space it would take up in some cases makes sense.

[fluffnik]

billberks2 said:

so does that mean all home systems are as crap as his?

No, but few if any will be as secure and as fireproof as a bank vault...

[fluffnik]

BAHN-STORMA said:

Nothing wrong with safety deposit boxes, depends who you use though...

You can't hide 'dodgy' stuff in reputable ones.

And how pray would they stop you?

[BAHN-STORMA]

fluffnik said:

BAHN-STORMA said:

Nothing wrong with safety deposit boxes, depends who you use though...

You can't hide 'dodgy' stuff in reputable ones.

And how pray would they stop you?

I was alluding more to the liklihood and potential consequences of such things being uncovered.

[gingerpaul]

Sooo, over a year on and I noticed this article in the wail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-12...

I must confess that I haven't read the full article yet, but here are a few bullet points.

• 6717 boxes that were opened and half of them around half were occupied.
• The contents of 2838 of those boxes that were occupied have been returned.
• 40 arrests have been made as a result of the raid.
• There have been 11 prosecutions as a result of the raid.
• £53M of cash has been seized.
• £2.83M has been confiscated by the courts.
• Around 690 boxes are still under investigation.

40 arrests and 11 prosecutions seems a little disappointing to me considering how strongly some people on here felt about it. With a 0.16% conversion rate of boxes raided to prosecutions I would have thought that there would be better uses of police time. For example I'd wager pulling cars over at random on the motorway would yield better figures.

On the other hand the article says drugs and guns have been found in the boxes. These will now not be available to the people that put them there. Nearly £3M has been confiscated from people who presumably have been proven to be criminals.

I was just wondering whether those who commented previously would see this operation as a success or a failure.

Edited because I'd cocked up the link.

Edited by gingerpaul on Sunday 25th October 22:13