Account Freezing Orders
Keywords
Account, Freezing, Orders, AFO, Issued, Accounts, Age, Money, Frozen, Bank, Amounts, Crime, Offence, Group, Associated, Detained, Laundering, Drugs, Discharged, Cases, Pursued, Challenged, Number, Successful, Overturned, Set aside, Criminally, Obtained, Funds, Bank, Compensate, Indemnity, Victim.
Publication Number
PUB 1352
FOI Reference Number
16441
Request Title
Account Freezing Orders
Date Range
2018 to 2021
Information Requested
1. a) How many Account Freezing Orders have been issued for accounts of people over the age of 18 in each of the last four years up to the end of Oct 2021?
b) How much money was frozen in each of these years for this age group?
2. a) How many Account Freezing Orders have been issued for accounts of people under the age of 18 in each of the last four years up to the end of Oct 2021?
b) How much money was frozen in each of these years for this age group?
c) The age of each of the people under 18 whose bank accounts were frozen.
d) The amounts of money frozen in each case
e) The crime offence group with which the Freezing Order was associated.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
23 November 2021
Date of Disclosure
15 December 2021
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16441 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 23 November 2021.
1. a) How many Account Freezing Orders have been issued for accounts of people over the age of 18 in each of the last four years up to the end of Oct 2021?
Frozen (Detained)
2018: 2
2019: 1
2020: 1
2021: 3
b) How much money was frozen in each of these years for this age group?
Frozen (Detained)
2018: £29,351.44
2019: £28,676.44
2020: £4,000.00
2021: £130,800.00
2. a) How many Account Freezing Orders have been issued for accounts of people under the age of 18 in each of the last four years up to the end of Oct 2021?
Frozen (Detained)
2018: 1
2019: 0
2020: 0
2021: 0
b) How much money was frozen in each of these years for this age group?
Frozen (Detained)
2018: £19,250.00
2019: N/A
2020: N/A
2021: N/A
c) The age of each of the people under 18 whose bank accounts were frozen.
Frozen (Detained)
2018: Age 17
2019: N/A
2020: N/A
2021: N/A
d) The amounts of money frozen in each case.
2018: £19,250.00
e)The crime offence group with which the Freezing Order was associated.
2018: Money Laundering - Drugs.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
FOI Reference Number
16058
Request Title
Account Freezing Orders
Date Range
2017 to 2021
Information Requested
1. The total amount of money / value of assets frozen by the force as a result of Account Freezing Orders - broken down by year (each year since first introduced)
2. The amount of money / returned when Account Freezing Orders have been discharged / cases were not pursued - broken down by year
3. The amount of money / value of assets returned when Account Freezing Orders have been lifted / cases were not pursued - broken down by year
4. The number of times account freezing orders have been challenged / number of cases brought against the force concerning this issue - broken down by year
5. How many of these cases have been successful / resulted in the account freezing order being overturned - broken down by year
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
18 August 2021
Date of Disclosure
15 December 2021
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16058 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 18 August 2021.
1. The total amount of money / value of assets frozen by the force as a result of Account Freezing Orders - broken down by year (each year since first introduced).
Frozen (Detained)
2017: £0.00
2018: £48,601.44
2019: £28,676.44
2020: £4,000.00
2021: £0.00
2. The amount of money / returned when Account Freezing Orders have been discharged / cases were not pursued - broken down by year.
2017: £0.00
2018: £0.00
2019: £19,250.00 (The court was asked to “set aside” an AFO by Essex Police as we identified a victim from whom the criminally obtained funds originated. There is no mechanism to compensate a victim via an AFO. The court set aside the AFO at our request so the bank could use their indemnity processes to return the funds directly to the victim. The funds were NOT returned to the account holder).
2020: £0.00
2021: £0.00
3. The amount of money / value of assets returned when Account Freezing Orders have been lifted / cases were not pursued - broken down by year.
This question appears to replicate Question 2 (“discharged” vs “lifted”).
4. The number of times account freezing orders have been challenged / number of cases brought against the force concerning this issue - broken down by year.
2017: 0
2018: 0
2019: 0
2020: 0
2021: 0
5. How many of these cases have been successful / resulted in the account freezing order being overturned - broken down by year.
N/A.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.