Robert McGivern

A FAMILY of crooks who amassed a criminal fortune have paid back nearly £2million after investigators tracked down their global property empire and other assets.

Money stuffed inside a Quality Street tin

Scrapyard dealer Robert McGivern, his mother, father, and Noel Healy were the subjects of Suffolk Constabulary’s largest-ever proceeds of crime confiscation order.

The force’s financial investigation unit worked alongside other investigators to discover a property portfolio spanning the UK, Ireland, Europe, the Far East, and Africa, built from the profits of crime.

The unit also found money held in bank accounts in the UK and overseas, as well as shares.

Robert McGivern was convicted at Ipswich Crown Court in 2009 of money laundering, fraud, and handling stolen goods. He was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

In September 2009, a confiscation hearing ordered him to pay back £851,000.

In November 2009, his mother Bernadette, 72, father Harold, 69, and Bernadette’s partner Healy, 89, all admitted money laundering and were given suspended prison sentences.

In February last year, they returned to Ipswich Crown Court for a confiscation hearing. Bernadette McGivern was ordered to repay £705,825, Healy was told to pay £375,900, and Harold McGivern was ordered hand over £118,273.

Police have now said £1,982,000 has been collected, and proceedings are in place to ensure the remaining £69,000 is recovered.

Suffolk Constabulary is set to receive £380,000 from its share of the amount paid so far.

Andy Gould, of Suffolk Constabulary’s financial investigation unit said: “The recovery of almost £2m in criminal assets brings to an end an investigation, which started more than three years ago.

“Although this was led by Suffolk Police, it also involved close partnership working with a number of other agencies, and it was this approach which has led to such a satisfactory outcome.

“Yet again the Proceeds of Crime Act has been used to great effect by Suffolk police to ensure that people, who have profited from illegal activity over a number of years have been made to pay back the benefit that they have enjoyed from their involvement in crime.”

The sentences and confiscation orders came after a major operation, codenamed Basil, led to a raid on the Ponderosa scrapyard at Bridge End Road, Red Lodge, near Newmarket, in 2008.

The two-acre site, which included a scrapyard, house, and outbuildings, took two days to search

It resulted in the seizure of £735,000. This included £475,000 in cash hidden in a holdall behind a bath panel, and £250,000 in tins of chocolates in one of the bedrooms.

Charges were then brought against the McGiverns and Healy, all of Bridge End Road, Red Lodge.