Police sell drug-baron cage fighter's luxury cars and jewellery on eBay
Proceeds from assets of Vincent Graham from Southport will go towards crime fighting, police say
Wednesday 16 October 2013 12.32 BST
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Vincent Graham
Vincent Graham, jailed in 2011 for supplying cocaine, had luxury cars including a Lamborghini Gallardo and Audi Q7. Photograph: Merseyside police/PA
Luxury assets confiscated from a cage fighter turned drug baron are being sold on eBay by the police.
The proceeds of the ill-gotten gains of Vincent Graham, 35, a father of 10 from Southport, will be ploughed back into crime fighting.
The items, including several high-performance cars, were seized as Graham's cocaine-importing operation from South Africa was uncovered by the authorities. He was jailed in 2011 at Preston crown court for seven years after he admitted supplying cocaine.
A luxury watch and jewellery, with bids starting at a combined total of £6,550, are the first lots to be auctioned online. A number of vehicles also seized from Graham are expected to be sold in future on eBay.
Among the cars he drove were a Lamborghini Gallardo, worth more than £40,000, a Nissan Skyline, valued at £35,000, and an Audi Q7 worth more than £20,000.
Half of the money gained from the sales will be split between Titan – the north-west regional organised crime unit – the region's police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service and Her Majesty's Courts Service. The remainder will be returned to central government.
Graham was said to have made an estimated £926,981 from the drugs conspiracy, which also led to the jailing of three other men who were part of his gang.
Detective Superintendent Jason Hudson, head of operations at Titan, said: "This is just the start of us selling the ill-gotten gains of convicted major criminals and re-investing the proceeds back into tackling others like them.
"Expensive jewellery, luxury furniture, fast cars – these trappings of wealth are things that most ordinary people can only dream of yet serious organised criminals have been enjoying them while blighting communities with their drugs and violence.
"Law enforcement agencies are using the Proceeds of Crime Act and court confiscation orders to their full potential and hit criminals in the pockets as well as with prison. By using eBay we hope to sell criminals' assets at the highest price we can.
"Titan tackles some of the most serious organised crime groups operating in the region and we are expecting to be able to auction off lots of other high-value things in the coming months, which can only be good news for our communities."
In the first lot, currently on sale at the Titan eBay shop, is a white gold diamond-set bracelet valued at £3,200, a Jacobs & Co diamond-set watch worth £2,000, a white gold stone-set line necklace valued at £1,000 and a white gold diamond-set ring valued at £350.
Graham lost his right leg in a motorbike accident in his 20s. When arrested he was renting a five-bedroom detached house in Brockhall Village, Lancashire, near to the training ground of Blackburn Rovers.
Police sell drug-baron cage fighter's luxury cars and jewellery on eBay | UK news | theguardian.com
