Five arrested and thousands seized in charity donation theft investigation
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A warehouse full of charity donation clothes from a warrant executed on 16 December -
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five men were arrested as part of the warrants -
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Large sums of cash were found across the addresses -
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£10,000 was found in a safe in one property
Five people have been arrested across addresses in Essex and London as we target a nationwide conspiracy with international links to steal from charity clothing banks.
The operation saw 12 addresses in Basildon, Thurrock and the capital targeted on Tuesday 16 December for their connection to the scheme and a Lithuanian organised crime group.
Our Proactive Money Laundering Team (PMLT) believe the group orchestrating these thefts are taking the clothes – which the public have donated to charities like the Salvation Army, British Heart Foundation and the Firefighters’ Charity – and selling them abroad to finance other crimes or launder money to disguise their offending.
They are often taken from charity bins in town and city centres, where offenders are able to gain access or force entry to the containers and take a large quantity of clothes at once.
The warrants were carried out by specialists across the force, including the Serious Crime Directorate, Operational Support Group and Dog Unit.
The five men – aged 46 from Pitsea, 38 from South Ockendon, 34 from Dagenham, 32 from Dagenham and 30 from Purfleet – are all arrested on suspicion of theft and remain in custody while our enquiries continue.
We also seized multiple mobile phones and several large quantities of cash, including £10,000 from a vehicle and a further large unconfirmed amount over £10,000 from a property’s bedroom – both believed to be connected to criminality.
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Suspects have been caught stealing charity donations and loading them into vans -
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The thefts have been recorded nationwide, including in Basildon and Harlow in Essex
'Huge disruption to the operation'
Detective Sergeant Mike Monkton of the PMLT said:
The scale of these thefts is huge – criminals are taking tonnes and tonnes of clothing from sites nationwide that was intended to help others or raise money for those in need.
Instead, it was being used to line the pockets of criminals operating across Europe.
These warrants all taking place simultaneously this morning is a huge disruption to the operations and will ultimately help us take criminal property off our streets, crime out of our neighbourhoods and send a clear message to anyone committing these offences in our county that there will be consequences.
'Protecting banks is our priority'
A spokesperson from the Salvation Army said:
We are very saddened when clothes that are kindly donated to our clothing bank are stolen.
Protecting our clothing banks is a priority and we monitor and visit our clothing banks on a regular, often daily, basis.
Bank theft is an issue that we deal with as part of our work to ensure donations are used for their intended purpose. We replace damaged locks immediately and we are grateful to Essex Police for their diligence in investigating this issue. Money raised from the clothing donated to our clothing banks is used to help vulnerable people, providing essentials like hot meals for rough sleepers and food parcels for struggling families. We are extremely grateful for the continued support from members of the public who donate to our clothing banks.
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